Do all emails either reach their intended destination, or get reported as a bounce? This is a question that arose during our recent bounce metric test - more on those next week.
They threw up a couple of apparent, and if true, major anomalies, which web developers say are simply not possible - the main one being the concept of the vanishing email.
We tested all our apparent bounce emails, and whilst most did bounce, some didn't. Call them non bouncers.
We then tested the non bouncers - asking them to reply if they got the message. Some did - so we discarded them.
We then rang the remainder - people whose email was being reported as getting through, but who had not responded. 8 out of 100 denied ever receiving it, so we begged their indulgence and sent them another whilst staying on the phone. All 8 reported were reported as delivered - no bounce messages, and all 8 people confirmed that they had not actually received anything. Spooky. By this stage I was thinking of calling my Sculder or Mully!
I checked with the technical people. Not possible they said. But my evidence seemed to say different.I always use a read receipt with my personal email, and make every effort to convince all my email correspondents to use it. It eliminates the possibility of the odd, probably vital message getting lost in cyberspace.
Of course, it could be held up by a filter. But all 8 confirmed they had no rigorous filters in play, and checked their junk folders, but found nothing. DerNer Derner
So unless there is a secret monster out there munching random emails and thriving in it's lair in the nether regions of the Interweb, there are only 2 explanations. Either the Internet is leaky, which I believe to be a strong possibility, or ISPs are filtering emails so aggressively (too make it look as through their attempts to combat spam are effective) that a certain percentage of legitimate email is getting junked by the post office, so to speak - collateral damage, I believe they call it.
If true, a worry. I will now probably be taken in the dead of night by a crack team of ISP sponsored hit men and silenced forever. Or eaten by the monster!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Picture this
One of the great assets of Html email is its ability to present images - images which help sell the message of your email.
Images help break up, and consequently complement and illustrate content A good pic replaces a 1000 words. In fact, the pics, if done well, dictate the content - which should say only what the image cannot say.
The temptation, of course, is to load your email with images - but the consequence is either excessive overall file size, or poor quality images. Neither is very helpful.
So balancing the image equation is essential - get it right, and sales could go through the roof. Get it wrong, and deliverability and rendering issues, or simply poor presentation will lower response rates dramatically.
You do not need to be a professional photographer to get good images - digicams allow for lots of experimentation, and a little imagination goes a long way in making a pic look both attractive and artistic. Think location and context, background and angles.
Get your pictures right and people will read your text - and then you are a long way down the track to getting your message across, and appropriate action taken.
Images help break up, and consequently complement and illustrate content A good pic replaces a 1000 words. In fact, the pics, if done well, dictate the content - which should say only what the image cannot say.
The temptation, of course, is to load your email with images - but the consequence is either excessive overall file size, or poor quality images. Neither is very helpful.
So balancing the image equation is essential - get it right, and sales could go through the roof. Get it wrong, and deliverability and rendering issues, or simply poor presentation will lower response rates dramatically.
You do not need to be a professional photographer to get good images - digicams allow for lots of experimentation, and a little imagination goes a long way in making a pic look both attractive and artistic. Think location and context, background and angles.
Get your pictures right and people will read your text - and then you are a long way down the track to getting your message across, and appropriate action taken.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I like bouncing
We are about to undertake an interesting exercise - testing our bounce reporting mechanisms.
Every email deployment results with a number of bounces, and our mailing software duly lists a variety of reasons for why messages have bounced. Do we trust them?
I guess the answer is no - which is why we are going to strip out all the bounced emails and send them a special message asking if they receive them or not. If not, then we will cull them, but I bet there will be some who say yes.
If I am right, does this throw up the whole issue of how accurate email metrics are?
My gut feel is that they are inaccurate, but consistently so - which is why we always encourage clients to look at trends rather than actual numbers when assessing campaign metrics. Trends are more valuable anyway.
We recently established a really good upwards trend for a new client by making a series of improvements over a period of weeks - opening rates, responses and orders have all grown consistently. Historically the client, with a DIY email set-up, had little faith in the medium. Now they love it!
We'll report back shortly on the bounce test results - could be interesting!
Every email deployment results with a number of bounces, and our mailing software duly lists a variety of reasons for why messages have bounced. Do we trust them?
I guess the answer is no - which is why we are going to strip out all the bounced emails and send them a special message asking if they receive them or not. If not, then we will cull them, but I bet there will be some who say yes.
If I am right, does this throw up the whole issue of how accurate email metrics are?
My gut feel is that they are inaccurate, but consistently so - which is why we always encourage clients to look at trends rather than actual numbers when assessing campaign metrics. Trends are more valuable anyway.
We recently established a really good upwards trend for a new client by making a series of improvements over a period of weeks - opening rates, responses and orders have all grown consistently. Historically the client, with a DIY email set-up, had little faith in the medium. Now they love it!
We'll report back shortly on the bounce test results - could be interesting!
Monday, April 13, 2009
All gone quiet over here
Has anyone else noticed the recent decline in the volume of email marketing received?
Over the last 4 weeks I have observed a marked decrease in the number of messages urging me to buy something. I think I know why.
It is because, as I have been saying for so long, few marketers really understand email - they see it as an extension of the web or worse still, other media.
By pursuing this erroneous belief, companies have failed to engage their email audiences. Poor results lead to disenchantment, and in tough times, a disappointing medium of marketing, however cheap, suddenly becomes negatively cost effective - and gets the chop.
It is disappointing from a number of perspectives - for the company who hoped email would prove a success, for the audiences who signed up in the hope that email would give them access to great deals, and for the industry as a whole - being buried by its own incompetence.
It is also a reflection of the fact that email as a budgetary item is normally included in the web spend - rather than as a standalone item. When the web budget gets cut (and don't get me started on why NZ companies are doing poorly with the online retail by and large), then so does the email.
Email marketing in NZ needs to reinvent itself in order to prosper - that means knowledge acquisition, followed by planning and smart delivery. Kiwis will usually give someone a second chance, but are quick to condemn repetitive mistakes. So the next, probably post recessionary wave of email marketing needs to be better.
Will it be? Well, I hope so, but sadly I doubt it.
Over the last 4 weeks I have observed a marked decrease in the number of messages urging me to buy something. I think I know why.
It is because, as I have been saying for so long, few marketers really understand email - they see it as an extension of the web or worse still, other media.
By pursuing this erroneous belief, companies have failed to engage their email audiences. Poor results lead to disenchantment, and in tough times, a disappointing medium of marketing, however cheap, suddenly becomes negatively cost effective - and gets the chop.
It is disappointing from a number of perspectives - for the company who hoped email would prove a success, for the audiences who signed up in the hope that email would give them access to great deals, and for the industry as a whole - being buried by its own incompetence.
It is also a reflection of the fact that email as a budgetary item is normally included in the web spend - rather than as a standalone item. When the web budget gets cut (and don't get me started on why NZ companies are doing poorly with the online retail by and large), then so does the email.
Email marketing in NZ needs to reinvent itself in order to prosper - that means knowledge acquisition, followed by planning and smart delivery. Kiwis will usually give someone a second chance, but are quick to condemn repetitive mistakes. So the next, probably post recessionary wave of email marketing needs to be better.
Will it be? Well, I hope so, but sadly I doubt it.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Most email marketers pouring money and databases down the drain
Yes, we are in recession. Yes, it will get worse, and yes, more companies are turning to email to market their way out of it.
Is it working?
Well, based on the stuff that hits my inbox, probably not for most of them.
There is still a fundamental lack of understanding amongst many so called email marketers about how best to use the medium. Email advertising doesn't work per se, yet it remains the staple format of what is being sent out.
To make email work as a marketing medium, there are some golden rules that need to be applied:
1. Email is a unique medium that offers a uniquely direct and personal form of communication - so make your offers unique to email - show the value in communicating by email.
2. Be clear about what you want recipients to do, and how to do it. Drowning a sales message in a whirlpool of unnecessary marketing fluff simply disguises your message.
3. Limited offers in limited numbers is a formula that works. Few people will buy all 20 of your special offers in one go, but if they are only offered 2, they might buy one, which leaves 18 more to make similar impact over the next 9 weeks.
4. Most companies use marketing to sell what they want to sell, but you must remember to give buyers reasons to buy. Demand comes from a number of factors - need, availability, price - underline these so a buying decision is an easy one. Emails that simply say here are our cheap offerings this week are treated as companies trying to shift the unsellable.
Understanding the basic principles of email marketing is not rocket science. Getting them right does require a little more thought and intuition, but ignoring them is simply wasting time and money, and right now that seems to be what the majority are doing. What a shame.
Is it working?
Well, based on the stuff that hits my inbox, probably not for most of them.
There is still a fundamental lack of understanding amongst many so called email marketers about how best to use the medium. Email advertising doesn't work per se, yet it remains the staple format of what is being sent out.
To make email work as a marketing medium, there are some golden rules that need to be applied:
1. Email is a unique medium that offers a uniquely direct and personal form of communication - so make your offers unique to email - show the value in communicating by email.
2. Be clear about what you want recipients to do, and how to do it. Drowning a sales message in a whirlpool of unnecessary marketing fluff simply disguises your message.
3. Limited offers in limited numbers is a formula that works. Few people will buy all 20 of your special offers in one go, but if they are only offered 2, they might buy one, which leaves 18 more to make similar impact over the next 9 weeks.
4. Most companies use marketing to sell what they want to sell, but you must remember to give buyers reasons to buy. Demand comes from a number of factors - need, availability, price - underline these so a buying decision is an easy one. Emails that simply say here are our cheap offerings this week are treated as companies trying to shift the unsellable.
Understanding the basic principles of email marketing is not rocket science. Getting them right does require a little more thought and intuition, but ignoring them is simply wasting time and money, and right now that seems to be what the majority are doing. What a shame.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Not a good look?
What makes a great email design? It is an increasingly complicated question. So many different email clients with different rendering protocols. So many different approaches – do you replicate printed media designs, optimise for email or what?
When designing a template for a client, it is important to explain that you cannot please all of the people all of the time – if you want to, then forget Html, use plain text.
We use Html because it enhances branding, it creates a visually appealing environment for your copy and because it allows us to gather metrics.
The golden rule is simplicity. Let your content lead your design, not vice versa. Unless you don’t care about 40% of your audience. That’s the harsh reality of it. Some marketers are happy to sacrifice nearly half their recipients in order to send a print style design through to the remaining 60% - big images with overlaid text everywhere, usually unsupported by Alt text. Or with the most pitiful stuff behind it (image of fish etc).
I believe that people respond to email because of what they read. But images can be a factor in deciding whether to read it or not. So can rich text. So Inbox always lets copy lead design.
But until the impossible dream of standardisation occurs, the design vs rendering conundrum will remain a challenge – an increasingly hard one to win.
When designing a template for a client, it is important to explain that you cannot please all of the people all of the time – if you want to, then forget Html, use plain text.
We use Html because it enhances branding, it creates a visually appealing environment for your copy and because it allows us to gather metrics.
The golden rule is simplicity. Let your content lead your design, not vice versa. Unless you don’t care about 40% of your audience. That’s the harsh reality of it. Some marketers are happy to sacrifice nearly half their recipients in order to send a print style design through to the remaining 60% - big images with overlaid text everywhere, usually unsupported by Alt text. Or with the most pitiful stuff behind it (image of fish etc).
I believe that people respond to email because of what they read. But images can be a factor in deciding whether to read it or not. So can rich text. So Inbox always lets copy lead design.
But until the impossible dream of standardisation occurs, the design vs rendering conundrum will remain a challenge – an increasingly hard one to win.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Out with the old.....
Feeling the recession yet? We did, last week. A long standing client decided they could o better and cheaper themselves, and I quote: "we can access bulk email technology at less than half the price".
I bit my lip and thanked them for their business.
Of course they can access bulk email technology cheaply, just as you can sell the Merc and buy a Skoda and save a few bob. I know the technology will be poor, and I know also, rather sadly, that they do not have the knowledge and skills in house to use it to best effect - that's why they paid us rather more.
Inevitably in a recession, people will look to save money, and often will sacrifice quality in so doing.
The irony is that the 5 new clients we have already picked up this year are upping their spend to sign with us - because they want email to work for them, and have realised that their self-managed, cheap bulk email technology is not producing the goods!
Of course it is sad to lose a client you have spent 4 years developing a professional and effective email communications campaign for, but at the end of the day, if you are sacrificed to cost, they probably attached little value to what you did for them, and losing them was an inevitability at some stage.
So, 2009 is one out, 5 in, and all for the right reasons. Plenty to smile about, and plenty of new clients to do a great job for.
I bit my lip and thanked them for their business.
Of course they can access bulk email technology cheaply, just as you can sell the Merc and buy a Skoda and save a few bob. I know the technology will be poor, and I know also, rather sadly, that they do not have the knowledge and skills in house to use it to best effect - that's why they paid us rather more.
Inevitably in a recession, people will look to save money, and often will sacrifice quality in so doing.
The irony is that the 5 new clients we have already picked up this year are upping their spend to sign with us - because they want email to work for them, and have realised that their self-managed, cheap bulk email technology is not producing the goods!
Of course it is sad to lose a client you have spent 4 years developing a professional and effective email communications campaign for, but at the end of the day, if you are sacrificed to cost, they probably attached little value to what you did for them, and losing them was an inevitability at some stage.
So, 2009 is one out, 5 in, and all for the right reasons. Plenty to smile about, and plenty of new clients to do a great job for.
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