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Optimization - What's Your Email List Hurdle Rate?
"Churn" and "fatigue" can keep your list from growing the way you want it to, but some knowledge and a couple of strategies can help you overcome them.
Delivery Trends - Direct from the Email Authentication Summit
Keep these three ideas in mind as we move closer to solving
spam: authentication, reputation and cooperation.
Quick Tips - Determining the Optimal Time to Send
A few tactics to help you determine the answer to one of the most frequently asked email marketing questions.
Stat Watch - Spam False Positives Affect Double Opt-In Emailers, Too
Permission emailers using double opt-in still get wrongly tagged as spammers, although a new study gives them a small edge in the battle.
Ask EmailLabs
"Is there an average click-through rate?"
Regulatory and Privacy Watch - Child Protection Laws
If you market this adult-themed content via email, you can't send it
to minors in Michigan and Utah anymore, even if they opted in to
your list.
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What's Your Email List Hurdle Rate? - Understanding the Effects of List Churn and Fatigue
By Loren McDonald
Is your email list dying a slow and steady death? You may not know it, but each year 50% of your subscribers may be leaving, disappearing and hibernating.
Everybody talks about click, open and conversion rates when measuring an email message's success or failure. For many companies though, their email program's success is ultimately determined by the quality and size of their list. So we've come up with a new metric that's a critical measure of your ability to grow your list.
We call it the "email list hurdle rate," and it measures the loss rate from your list that you need to overcome to grow your list. You need to know your list's hurdle rate, because it will tell you how many new subscribers you will need to attract, both to replace the ones who leave and to grow your list.
Another hurdle to overcome besides list churn is list fatigue, caused by once enthusiastic subscribers deciding to take a Corona break attitude with your emails. Read the full article.
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Delivery Trends - Direct from the Email Authentication Summit
By Kirill Popov
Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Email Authentication Summit, an event put together by the big players in the email industry. The topic, predictably, was email authentication, and its adoption. Here are my key takeaways from the summit:
1. Authentication! If you're not authenticating your email yet, you will soon be left far behind your competition. Look to Sender-ID and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) as the methods to use.
2. Reputation! It's coming fast, so be ready. Look at Habeas and Bonded Sender and the requirements for both programs.
3. Cooperation! Participation and adoption ensures that we retain control of our industry, heading off any government movement toward federal Do-Not-Email lists.
Full Article | Feedback
Previous Delivery Trends Column
Microsoft Adds Hotmail/MSN Mail UI Warning
for Emails Not Authenticated by Sender ID
ClickZ E-Mail Delivery Columns
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Determining the Optimal Time to Send
The best time to send your email message depends on a variety of factors. Generally speaking, we've found that early in the week and early in the morning tend to be the best time. However, one of our clients, after testing several combinations of days and times, found that Sunday morning at 7AM delivered the highest number of transactions from their message. You may find that other times/days result in higher open and click-through rates from your subscribers.
The simplest method to determine optimal send time is to monitor which times of the day your subscribers are currently opening your messages, then test sending at different times of the day and different days of the week that are logical for your subscriber base. The best method is always to conduct split tests. Segment your list into equal random groups and email the identical message to each segment at key time periods (keeping in mind differences by time zone). After testing several messages, go with the day/time combination that generates the best results.
Some advanced tactics for those of you with the time and energy to implement them:
- Assuming you have an opt-in form on your Web site, allow the subscribers to select the time period they'd like to receive emails when they subscribe.
- Consider segmenting based on time zone. If your subscribers provided their mailing addresses when opting in, segment your list according to their state/zip code and corresponding time zones. When you've determined optimum mailing times this ensures that your message reaches subscribers across the country all at the same local time period.
- Survey your subscribers via email as to what time of the day they would most like to receive emails - and give them a half dozen time periods to choose from. Then send emails to the responding subscribers based on their preferences.
- Conduct a mini focus group by contacting a dozen of your subscribers and finding out what time they'd like to receive emails. Use these conversations to also learn what types of information and format would be most valuable and preferred.
For more information, visit the EmailLabs Resource Center:
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Spam False Positives Affect Double Opt-In Emailers, Too
A recent report on email false-positive rates by email deliverability firm Pivotal Veracity gives a slight edge to senders who use double opt-in to add addresses to their mailing lists. But results also showed using the double, or confirmed, opt-in method won't guarantee that all emails will go straight to the in-box.
The study found that 54% of the 100 companies scored false positives when sending email to leading Web-based email services. (A false positive is an email message from a requested sender that was wrongly tagged as spam and sent to a bulk folder.) Read Full Article.
Full Article | Feedback
Download your own copy of Pivotal Veracity's report, "False Positives"
More Email Marketing Statistics
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Q: My question is very similar to the one from last issue about average open rates. Is there an average click-through rate? Or ranges to judge whether response was poor, average or good? From Karen A.
A. The click-through rate (CTR) is important because without it, you don't get conversions. However, there's no single benchmark click-through rate, because CTRs depend on many factors: whether you send to a business or consumer audience, the kind of mailing you send, how relevant it is to your audience, how often you send, your opt-in process, your use of personalization and segmentation and dozens of other factors. And most significantly, how many links you have in your email and if you are providing content such as articles, whether you include the entire article within the body of the email or you have a teaser or snippet that requires subscribers to click through to a Web site to read.
Beyond that, many companies calculate and report CTRs differently - using total rather unique clicks. Many subscribers will click on multiple links, which means that CTRs based on "total" clicks are typically about two times higher than those based on "unique" clicks. Read Full Article
Full Article | Got a Question? Ask EmailLabs
For more information, see these articles in the EmailLabs Resource Center:
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Child Protection Laws
Two new state laws that prohibit sending email with adult-themed content to minors have just gone into effect in Michigan and Utah. Because these laws were written as "child protection" laws rather than email regulations, they can skirt CAN-SPAM's preemptive wording and essentially create Do-Not-Email lists.
Besides limiting email content, the Michigan law prohibits sending links to sites that contain any of the objectionable materials listed above (such as a link to an online store that sells alcohol or tobacco). Read Full Article.
Full Article | Feedback
More Regulatory and Privacy Articles
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Dear Reader,
Before your email list can grow, you need to replace the people who leave it because they unsubscribe, get bounced off it or just disappear from lack of interest. This month's Optimization article explains how "churn" and "fatigue" affect list life. We also give you a handy calculator to figure out how many new members you need to reach your list growth goals.
And we'd like to thank you, our readers, for voting this newsletter
the Best B2B
E-Newsletter in ClickZ's Marketing Excellence Awards.
Loren McDonald
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> Distribution Groups: EmailLabs has recently released a replacement to random groups called distribution groups. Distribution groups now allows users to split their lists by percentage or by number of members.
> Visual Message Report: Click-through rate statistics are overlayed on the actual message images and links.
> EmailLabs V4: Due out in Q3, the new version of the EmailLabs application will introduce many new features as well as an updated look and feel. Some of the slated enhancements are a Dynamic Content Message Builder, a task management system, seedbox monitoring, a new message creation process and many others.
Call 888-465-9747 to learn more or request a demo.
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