A Crash Course in Boosting Your Email Delivery Rates

Maybe it's all the back-to-school advertisements I?ve encountered lately, but I thought it would be fun to give all of our readers a quick refresher course on email deliverability. There has been a lot of discussion on the subject in recent weeks, and we wanted to share some important suggestions to help you receive an A+ in your email marketing campaigns.

Before we discuss guidelines for boosting your email delivery rates, it is important to understand what deliverability is and what it means to your email marketing campaigns. Email deliverability represents the probability that your email campaign will successfully reach a recipient?s inbox and that it will arrive in a legible, presentable fashion. Ultimately, higher delivery rates will increase your chances of seeing a return on your marketing investment.

Unfortunately, few marketers today can expect to achieve perfect deliverability. For many, deliverability can be a confusing and painful issue. But by configuring things correctly from the start, adhering to best practices, and monitoring industry trends you can feel confident that you are achieving the highest relative deliverability for your industry, brand, and type of messaging. Now, here are some important rules to follow in your email marketing efforts. Class is now in session.

Get Permission
This is the most important step of the email marketing campaign. Make it clear to subscribers what they will be receiving from you and why it is they are receiving your messages. Of course, make sure they have an easy way to unsubscribe.

Maintain Your Lists
Be sure to remove undeliverable messages that bounce on an ongoing basis. A clean email file will help your reputation. Be sure to process your list through a hygiene service and make sure addresses comply with ISP standards.

Authentication Matters
Authentication lets ISPs know who you are. When they know that, your chances for reaching an inbox are much better. Authentication prevents the forgery of email messages and allows senders to build a positive reputation with receivers based on email behavior.

Follow the Rules and Regulations
It is important that all of your messages meet legal approval and follow all of the Federal CAN-SPAM laws. There are several important ones to follow, so make sure you are familiar with each of them.

Develop the Right Creative
What you say has an effect on your deliverability, and of course an effect on response. Don?t use language associated with negative marketing tactics. Do not promise anything you can't actually deliver. Use images sparingly and avoid sending attachments.

These "entry-level" tips should help you get started on your way to greater email deliverability success. For those of you who want to get to the head of the class in this subject, contact Datran Media, and our experts can teach you everything you need to lift delivery and help you increase your response rates.

Online Retailers Gearing Up for a High Performance Holiday

While many of us are getting ready to hit the beach or enjoy ourselves at a BBQ this Labor Day weekend, marketers are thick in preparation for the winter holiday season. "In many verticals, especially online retail and direct, summer is the season for finalizing plans and budgets for the very busy holiday season," says Lana McGilvray, V.P. of marketing for Datran Media. In fact, 41 percent of retailers surveyed by a new Webtrends report said that the holidays account for more than 20 percent of their annual revenue. And just how are these retailers preparing for a jolly holiday season? Through email marketing of course!

The Webtrends Online Retail Holiday Readiness Survey, which interviews over 300 retail professionals, found that overall, retailers ranked email marketing as the most important demand-generation activity for holiday success. What's more, 50 percent of those surveyed said that visitor segmentation is important to the success of their holiday season and that it is vital to employ campaigns that are targeted and relevant to customers.

From Internet retailers to traditional brick and mortar stores, the importance of email marketing campaigns across every channel is apparent. The report reveals that email is considered the most important demand generation for each, with search engine marketing and search engine optimization ranking second and third. According to the study, the biggest increases in holiday spending will be in email marketing.

Setting up targeted email marketing campaigns in the summer months to reap the rewards come the holidays is wise preparation. This latest Webtrends report shows that many marketers understand just that. The full report is available for free download at the Webtrends home page. And to learn more about employing email marketing in your holiday efforts, contact us.

Q: Do you have any tips for delivering a successful B2B email campaign?

A: Business-to-business (B2B) email campaigns share a wide range of commonalities and differences with business-to-consumer programs (B2C). If you are looking to launch a successful B2B email marketing campaign, here are a few tips.

Define your target audience. Are you trying to reach a CEO with a huge staff, or are you targeting the marketing department of a boutique company? Perhaps you are directly communicating with resellers and/or distributors. Each of your audience members or communication constituents speaks and responds to you differently based on the language, tone and style you employ. Your email copy should be tailored to address audience needs. Once you know who your audience is, make sure you can sum up what you are offering quickly. B2B marketers are very busy and you have a very short window of opportunity to grab their attention. Don't go into too many details, instead get to the heart of the matter and explain why using your product or service will make their job easier or more productive.

What is your main goal? Marketers often claim that their main goal is to incite purchases, grow existing customer relationships (loyalty) and/or gain visibility with new audiences. But, your main campaign goal should be narrower. How are you going to promote purchases, loyalty and/ or awareness. Do you want audience members to visit your website? Register for a newsletter or whitepaper? Sign-up for a demo? Make your call to action clear, and make it easy for members to make it to the intended destination.

Finally, you want to think about the best time to deliver your message. Is there really a best time of the day to send a B2B email? You don?t want your message getting lost in their inbox, so first you should know if they are on the east or west coast, and make sure you send it to them during their work hours. Next, just test, test, test! That is the best way to determine a good time to deliver your offer.



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