Henry Hyder-Smith's Blog

The E-Consultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Industry Census 2008, published March 2008, investigated over 600 email marketers’ approach to data. 

After all, accurate data powers relevant targeting, which is proven to deliver the best results. 

The findings showed that regular data cleaning has taken a back seat for many email marketers.

The E-consultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Industry Census of over 600 email marketers highlights the real cost of deliverability for the first time - marketers are wasting around 11% of their budget. 

This entry investigates what they can do about it.

The subject line has evolved. It is now a filter and not a marketing device. 

Those using it to tease extra opens run the risk of sender reputation damage for little incremental revenue.

In the latest DMA National Benchmarking report (Q207), all contributing ESPs were asked what value their clients could allocate to an email address. 

The average result came to £9.11 - but how did the DMA come to this figure and is it right to use it to inform your marketing activities?

The send speeds of ESPs are increasingly being looked at as a key selling point. Being able to pump out over a million emails per month is regarded as a benefit by many clients.

Most major UK-based ESPs are able to provide these speeds, often through a partnership with companies such as Strongmail or Port25 Solutions.

But is this important?

A simple Santa hat, some holly or a bit of tinsel hanging off the corporate logo is often the most companies do to make their email marketing festive. 

They are missing a trick.

I wanted to share with you a quick summary of the main points of our presentation on “Using email to get relevant and to get incremental revenue” that we gave at eCommerce Expo last week.

One of my team has just spoken at the latest DMA “Effective Email Marketing” conference on the importance of when to send email marketing.   

As part of one of the presentations, John Nugent of Responsys asked a very topical question:

“Should email marketers be paid commission on all the revenue they generate?”

This question has been niggling away at me for a few days, and I can honestly say I don’t think they should. Before you scream, let me explain why.

A good online marketer makes their budget stretch a long way. Now I employ an account management team full of them, I’m always gobsmacked by how far they used to make a little money go in their previous positions.

One of the reasons for the failure of NatMags’ Jellyfish magazine has been blamed on email distribution problems. 

What lessons does this hold for email marketers?