 |
 | Contact Us | Bulldog Europe |
|
| Bulldog Solutions Home | Subscribe | Archives | Refer a Colleague | Contact | 877.402.9199 | ||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
BtoB E-mail Marketing E-mail Deliverability Q&A Part 2: E-mail Metrics On August 14, 2007, Bulldog Solutions hosted An Expert Roundtable on E-mail Deliverability for Lead Generation. This hour-long panel featured Stephanie Miller, vice chair for member initiatives for the Email Experience Council and vice president of strategy for Return Path; Michelle Eichner, COO and vice president of client development for Pivotal Veracity; and Ryan L. Rutan, programmer analyst III for National Instruments. Over the next several months the panelists will answer several dozen questions not addressed during the live Webinar. This month's installment covers question regarding specific e-mail metrics. September's installment covered questions related to regulation and blacklisting. Future Q&As will cover messaging, list rentals and more.
E-mail MetricsQ: Regarding standardization, is the industry moving away from measuring/analyzing open rates? Getting very mixed feedback.A: Stephanie Miller: Open rates are still valid, and I believe will continue to be an important metric for e-mail marketing. However, it's important to be sure to know how open rates are being tracked when you compare yours to industry averages (published by MarketingSherpa and some of the larger e-mail broadcast vendors). Open rates are most valuable when you use them comparatively. While they are rarely accurate due to image suppression, they should be relatively constant across your own mailing dates. So watch for erratic dives and spikes. A useful metric is click to open rates, which gives you a guide for how strong your call to action is. If many readers opened but didn't click, you may not be delivering on your promise. Similarly, if few folks open, but those that did DO click, then you may be identifying content that is only interesting to a small portion of your file. Q: If we are confident that we are "relevant" to the individual, and give them control, then can we be more confident that our open rates, subscriber rates, loyalty and so on will increase? In other words, always give the customer the "choice." What is your take on this? A: Stephanie Miller: I totally agree. Recognizing that it's about the subscriber and not about the marketer is the first step toward relevancy. Give them what they want and give them control over their own inbox. Listen to feedback. Send information that they can easily digest and understand in bite-sized pieces. When they are in the market for more information (e.g., a buying cycle), then you can send more, as it will be more welcome. Q: Do some vendors provide inbox deliverability vs. overall deliverability? Currently the only way we'd know that after each send is by using test accounts and manually checking to see if the message went to inbox or bulk/trash. A: Stephanie Miller: Most e-mail broadcast vendors and MTAs report "delivered," which is usually the non-bounces (typically about 95%-99% delivered). These systems usually can also provide inbox deliverability vs. bulk if they partner with one of the deliverability service providers like Return Path or Pivotal Veracity. Do try to get both numbers. Inbox deliverability is a key metric for all your response measures. Q: Does frequency or volume have any effect on e-mail reputation? Are there any recommendations for BtoB marketers who are just sending out monthly newsletters, but no real volume in between? A: Stephanie Miller: Absolutely. There are volume thresholds at all the receivers, and your system should be set to accommodate those (check with IT or your e-mail broadcast vendor). Also, it's important to have sending constancy: sending the same volume at the same pace. So if you send once a month to a very large file, your sending constancy has a huge spike in the middle, and nothing else. It may be better for you to send out mail twice a month, or to pace out the one mailing over a week or 10 days to even out the mailing schedule. Most receivers look at the past 30 days when determining your sender reputation, so if you mail infrequently, your reputation looks spotty, which could trip their alarms. Know colleagues who would be interested in this topic? Send them this newsletter, and if they subscribe, you'll be entered into a drawing to win an iPod nano. Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, a lead optimization and lead management company dedicated to helping our clients generate more, better leads and turn them into revenue. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, senior manager of Field Marketing. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In a recent survey, we asked 687 sales and marketing executives to rate their ability to apply information from previous lead-generation activities to future planning and strategy.
