E-mail Marketing - News and Blog

Back in the day we used to talk about 'above-the-line' and 'below-the-line' as a proxy for advertising versus direct marketing (and never the twain shall meet).

Digital has changed all that - we need to redraw the line.

Free delivery offers are the main driver behind online shoppers' purchase decisions - more so than even their site experience, a new study by ForeSee Results has indicated.

The company surveyed more than 10,500 visitors to 30 top retail websites in the UK to find out what drives site traffic, sales and satisfaction.

Over a third (34%) cited free delivery as the most important factor in their last purchase decision. A positive site experience was the only other thing mentioned by a significant amount of respondents (15%).

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?

Email is still one of the most effective marketing channels for a small business today – it is cheaper, more measurable and can be targeted more effectively than traditional direct mail.

More than half of the respondents to our 2007 Industry Census that tracked their ROI, said that income from email marketing was three times or more than the amount spent , while almost a third said it was five times or more.

It occurred to me recently that we do not give spammers (and in their turn ISPs) enough credit for helping to make email a long-term, credible media.

How so?

Software as a Service (SaaS) tools help email marketers look smart by keeping it simple - so long as the techies who designed them understand how their customers  do things.

The success of email newsletters rests on a delicate balance between regular communications and flooding your customer’s inbox.

I take a look at HMV’s email marketing efforts, which offer a lot but fail to deliver.

To keep emailing those individuals now being labelled 'emotionally unsubscribed' may be enticing on the basis that one day they may be in the buying window... but it may also be very dangerous.

One of the questions I am asked most frequently is 'which email service provider or delivery platform is the best?'

The answer is 'how long is a piece of string?'