Chris Baggott's Email Marketing Best Practices

Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart

Ok, a few weeks ago we had some discussion about the From side of email.  My contention was and is that email benefits when there is as much localization and relevance as possible. 

Relationships are between people.

Some that I have a great deal of respect for contest that this might be right for SMB’s, and even B2B marketers but not for the big brands or big retailers.   They say: “people want the relationship with the brand, not the people.”   Of course I disagree.

My case today will be the biggest of the big brand. big box retailers.  What is there mass media message lately?   Anyone out there watching TV or reading the papers?   The message is that their employees are happy and most importantly, productive members of my community.

Wal-Mart doesn’t want to be perceived to be a faceless behemoth that destroys small business in my town and hurts its workers by underpaying and not providing benefits.   

The commercial I saw this morning was all about some assistant manager in some town where Wal-Mart changed his life, and more importantly the company was doing great things that benefit the entire community.

Great message considering they have to deliver it through TV.   Now think about the email channel.  Wouldn’t it be great it they used that medium to tell me about the people who actually live in my community?  To tell me about the terrific charity work they are doing right here?  It would be easy and highly effective.  The proof?  It’s right there on TV.  For the cost of one of those big production TV slots they could do a whole year of much more personalized and relevant relationship building with millions of individuals.

We're Not Worthy of Customer Loyalty

I wanted to share this quick take from Melissa Campanelli of DM News.   This is exactly what we have been talking about:  Execution.

Companies continue to take customers for granted, and the relationship between company and customer is worsening, according to the 2004 annual survey and customer experience management report from Strativity Group Inc., Parsippany, NJ, in cooperation with CustomerSat Inc., Mountain View, CA (read more)

This is the most frustrating thing in my life.  Meaningful customer interaction is easy. 

The Customer is the most valuable resource

I saw this interview in the IBD last week that I wanted to share.  The interview was with David Helfrich of Garnett & Helfrich Capital.  They are a "Venture Buyout" firm with the objective of finding neglected  business units within large public companies.   It is looking for tech growth opportunities.

The question was: What kind of assets are you looking to aquire?

What was interesting to me, was this part of his answer:

"....The key is to find a business or product line....that has a sticky loyal customer base that we can serve and invest in."  "It turns out that in today's environment, one fo the most difficult things to achieve is a sale - especially the initial sale." 

What he is saying is that one of the top assets that they use to value a opportunity is the customers....

Why does that seem so obvious and brilliant at the same time?

Final Valentine's Day Installment

5) Know when it’s over.   It is a sad fact, relationships end L.   Sometimes they never should have started in the first place.    If football is critical to your existence and she hates it, you may have to acknowledge that perhaps this relationship isn’t in the cards and let it go immediately.

Other times, you make a mistake and it can’t be overcome or they just find someone that they like better.   Obviously the first thing to do is step 4, but if that doesn’t work, you need to let it go.

As marketers (like all desperate lovers) we keep coming back…we can’t bear the loss.  In the real world this is called stalking. 

The problem is that rather than leaving the dumping party with at least a little fond feeling about how mature we are, we become either the subject of cocktail party jokes or they issue a restraining order.  Either way, it’s bad.

When it’s over it’s over.  Let it go.

There are no guarantees in Love or Marketing.  But this Valentines day, lets all reflect on these  5 simple rules and resolve to be better cupids all year long.

Do you ever make a mistake?

4)  Acknowledge when you make a mistake.

Apologize.  Be humble and sincere.  Ask for forgiveness and offer some token.   If you were dating, and you really cared about the person you would know the signs that you had done something wrong. You are sensitive to this, you learn to recognize when you might be getting the cold shoulder, or the silent treatment.   If you are dumb, you just keep bumbling along like nothing is wrong and hope it goes away.

Smart people learn to recognize the problem, and alter their communication to get the relationship back on track.

VD Continued: Don't Smother Them

3) Don’t smother them.   Just like a real relationship, you have got to be respectful of the proper pace.   I love the commercial where the woman cooks his favorite food, knits him a sweater and introduces him to her parents all on the first blind dateJ.  (I have know idea what this commercial is selling btw)

All relationships develop at their own pace.  Some people will only want an occasional date for a period of time before things really heat up.  Come on too strong and they are gone.   On the other hand, some people want to get married right away.  Move too slowly and they are going to find another more promising relationship.   

As marketers in is up to us to sense the right pace to sense the pace of each and every one of our clients and prospects if we want to increase the odds of getting married to all of them.  This is called ‘frequency’ control and it is a critical element for marketers in 2005.

Be Human

2)  Be Human.  People don’t fall in love with institutions, and they are not inclined to fall in love with a “Brand” (Apple & Starbucks excepted).  Your chances of landing in a great relationship goes up exponentially when you show a human side.  Introduce your customers to a real person, personalize on the “from” side.    For 60+ years we marketers have focused on “institution to many”.

This year let’s focus on One to One. 

Five ways to Love your customers this Valentines Day:

Valentines Day is of course my favorite holiday.   After all, as marketers our job is really centered on playing cupid for our companies and our customers.   

This special time of year gives us all an opportunity to reflect and focus on what is really important in our (marketing) lives.

So, in the spirit of the season, I offer the following five ways to bring love to your customers over the next 5 days leading up to February 14th:

1) Treat them special.   Nobody ever fell in love with anyone who treated them like they were not unique.   Flatter them; point out individual traits that make them individuals.   This goes beyond calling them by the right name and extends to everything you can find out about them that will help you foster a stronger relationship.   

We need to think about marketing just like you were dating.  If this was a potential spouse you would find out everything you could about what they like and don’t like….and then you would weave that into your conversations.   If he loves football, you would try and learn something about the game; wouldn’t you?   If  she likes fine wine, you would take her to a great restaurant and show off your vast knowledge.

Tomorrow: Be Human....

Myth Debunked: No Such Thing as a Best Day

Myth Debunked: No Such Thing as a Best Day

By Morgan Stewart
Director of Strategic Services, ExactTarget

The day and time at which you chose to send an email message can have a real impact on response rates.  As an email strategist, I'm frequently asked about the latest trends regarding the "best day to send." Conventional wisdom on the topic often changes, and several theories suggest opposing days. So it's no wonder why so many people are looking for the answer! 

In 2004, two separate studies were released touting Monday as the best day of the week to send email.  The first study, published by ReturnPath, showed that deliverability rates were best for messages sent on Monday.  The second study, conducted by eROI and published by MarketingSherpa, suggested that open and click rates are also better on Mondays.  Yet prior to these studies, conventional wisdom led marketers to believe that Tuesday was the best day to send email.   

ExactTarget recently conducted its own research on the topic. The study analyzed twelve months of historical data, 2000 organizations, 160,000 email campaigns, and 800 million email messages-which makes it the largest amount of data ever analyzed in a study on this topic.

The study focused on metrics measuring customer response, with controls set by basing response rates on the number of messages sent, not messages delivered.  The following are the key findings of this study for the period covering December 2003 through November 2004:

Most marketers send email mid-week.  Over 97% of campaigns are sent Monday through Friday, leaving the weekends wide open for the brave marketers who send campaigns over the weekend.

Best days for opens are not necessarily the best for clicks.  Comparing results month-by-month shows that there are serious inconsistencies between the best day for opens and the best day for clicks.  Marketers need to make a distinction of which they want to drive.  Maximizing open rates is important for brand exposure, while generating clicks is the key if the goal is conversion.

Industry articles may jinx results.  MarketingSherpa published the results of a study in late July stating that the best day of the week to send was Monday.  This study was based on the results for Q2 2004.  The results of our analysis for Q2 2004 also suggest that Monday was the best day to send in Q2 2004.  However, since that report was published, Monday has consistently ranked 5th and 6th in battle for "best day to send" in terms of open rate.

Wednesday through Friday maximize opens. Starting in July 2004, the best days for maximizing open rates shifted to later in the work week.  For the July through November period, Friday performed the best, but it was less than 0.5% ahead of Wednesday and Thursday in average open rate.

Weekends rule for generating clicks.  Weekend results are mixed with open rates performing slightly below average, but Sunday and Saturday yield the highest click-through rates respectively.  With less competition in the inbox on weekends, people who open your email have more time to actually read and respond to your message.

Results by industry vary.  The trends highlighted above cover a broad spectrum of industries.  When looking at specific industries, differences emerge.  High-tech companies fare well on Fridays, membership organizations on Wednesdays, and online retailers drive twice the click-through rates when sending on Sunday.

Inbox competition is alive and well.  Sending at peak times increases competition for attention in the subscriber's inbox.  Open and click-through rates are generally lower when more people are sending.  For example, in the business services industry, most campaigns are sent on Mondays (nearly one-third of all campaigns for this industry), and Monday open rates are 8% lower than the industry average.

The results of our study indicate that marketers need to rethink the best times for sending email.  There is no simple answer to which day is best for sending email.  The results vary each month, by industry and by target audience.  The notion of a universal "best day to send email" is, at best, a moving target, and at worst a myth.
Instead of following industry trends (including the results outlined in this article), marketers should continue to construct logical hypotheses and validate them by testing the results. 

Go Here to view diagrams and graphs from the study.

Ask Your Customers

Great Article in Forbes about using email surveys to guide customers offerings.  Not sure what your customers want?  Ask them.   Not sure what value they get from your service?  Ask them...

Anyway, read this article here.  You will find the cover story at the very bottom of the page called:  "Why companies need your ideas"