We've just released the 2009 Email Benchmark report.

"The period of this report, July 2008 to June 2009, was a very difficult time for marketers, advertisers, publishers and the marketing services industry. However, through the midst of the Global Financial Crisis and the Recession ‘We didn’t have’, digital marketing seemed to enjoy a second renaissance (the first being the resurgence following the dot-com bust).

Across returnity’s network, we saw a 200% increase in email volumes from 1H08 through 1H09. While most of the volume increase was associated with consumer marketing, B2B marketers showed the strongest growth rate at 210% YoY."

Continue reading your free copy by clicking here.  All we ask is that you subscribe to our mailing list in return :)

If you're already a subscriber, just send us a direct tweet, add a comment below, or speak to your account manager for a copy.

Feel free to post any follow up questions, thoughts or general discussion right here.

The Roses Only gang, full of pent up emotion, longing and love, finally cracked yesterday and let me know just how they feel about me

They sent me a lovely email telling me how much they missed me.  Bless!

It just about brought a tear to my eye. I had to fight off the overwhelming urge to track them down and hug every last damn one of them and reassure them that yes, I still care.

It's not often you see a re-activation campaign. Behavioral segmentation seems to be either a completely foreign concept or some other language to most marketers.  So it's good to see some publishers take this seriously, and do a nice job of it.

The copy was light hearted, emotional and engaging:

We miss you!
You haven’t sent a gift with us for a while, and we’re sure your loved ones miss the gifts you used to send them.

We’d like to remind you of the good times we’ve had – the smiles, the tears of joy when the Roses Only gift would arrive at the door.

This was nicely followed up with their usual engaging offers in a very clean and simple to navigate layout.  

Although still a little long, the CTA's are nice a big and the offers are very nicely chosen so you forgive the fact you have to scroll a way to see it all.

You also forgive the fact that the online version contains a bunch of special characters where the apostrophe's should be...

Overall, a nice example of how to keep your database engaged and feeling all warm and fuzzy.

Feeling the love?  Want to start sharing it?  How about dropping us a line and seeing how we can help you get all lovey with your database.

Roses Only is, strangely enough, an online flower shop. Their great but very restrictive brand name apparently led to them creating a number of other 'Only' flavoured stores - Hampers, Fruit and Sparkling.

One of the things they've always done well is present nice, clean, crisp imagery in a well laid out message. Their current offer is a great example.

Subject: Ed, Red Hot Special - 15% off everything!!

While definitely attention grabbing, the subject line would skirt the boundaries of 'spammy' had it not been paired with a well known 'From' address.

A very clean layout, starting with the banner text and black on white, high contrast copy makes it very easy to read and gets straight to the point.

Areas of improvement though would be perhaps making the CTA's a little more prominent. In the same vein, the promotional code is almost lost in the rest of the copy.

One of the things done really well, and that's not seen as often as it should be, is the small link in the header to a mobile version of the email.

Which links to a simple, lean, text only version of the same email:

Which, ironically, due to the nature of text only formatting, has more prominent CTA's than it's big brother.

Nice! Now I'm off to order some gifts :)

Drop us a line if you like some tips on improving your holiday campaigns.

Recently we had a customer ask us to provide best practice advice for a registration process.

So we recommended a number of improvements to their form. Among them was the suggestion of employing a double opt-in system. This got us thinking about making sure you all know how this works and why it's a good reason to start using it today.

A quick recap on how this process works is as follows:

1. A registration form is completed
2. A confirmation email is sent to stated email address
3. The recipient clicks on the link in the email to confirm their subscription

That's all there is to it. Nice and simple!

The benefits of this process are:

1. The recipient can verify that the email address supplied is correct and that they own it
2. The recipient has a chance to add this address to their contact or safe senders lists
3. The sender now has a valid email in their database

Our studies show that an average of about 78% of double opt-in emails are validatated (clicked through). The reasons for this are obvious - you have the registrants' attention. They're telling you that they want to join your list and will do what you ask.

The remaining ~20% are usually invalid addresses - which you didn't want anyway.

So the net result, either way is that you'll end up with a perfectly validated, qualified subscriber.

What more can you ask for?! :)

Now it doesn't necessarily have to follow this exact process. There are a number of ways that the end goal of the double opt-in process can be achieved to make it less troublesome or complicated.

For example

A creative way to employ this validation process is to integrate it with your registration process. This means breaking up the registration into two parts.

Step 1 - Basic rego info

• Email (validated using javascript and/or double entry)
• First name
• Last name
• Salutation*
• Post/Zip Code*

You can ask for more but we'd suggest keeping it to these 5. (*you can extrapolate gender and geographic location from these). At the very least, ask for email and first name.

Then you send a confirmation email which asks for validation and sends them onto part 2 of the process on the validation links' 'Thank You' page.

Stage 2 - more info

Here's where you can ask for the extra info that you may have left out of step 1 and then ask for other relevant information such as preferences or other demographic data.

Of course some type of incentive works best. But sometimes just a reminder that you can give the subscriber a better quality service if they give up this information is enough.

In all cases remember one important rule. Only ask for the information you need, when you need it.

For more tips and hints, feel free to drop us a line.

Nicks Wine Merchants - Vintage Direct is a large Aussie online liquor vendor. They do a great job of making me part with my hard earned $$ in my ongoing quest to build a decent Single Malt Scotch collection.

I enjoy my Scotch neat. But neat is not a word I'd necessarily use to describe these emails. Whilst there are a lot of quite nice things that they're doing such as having a clear banner image and branding, a prominent offer (Free delivery on orders over $200) and a table of contents (that doesn't link anywhere), there's a few things that I think could be done a little better.

Subject: Issue No. 435 - Nicks Newsletter

The first area to look at is the header and intro. You normally have around 250 pixels of 'above the fold' space to work with. (A separate debate on whether 'the fold' is relevant will be had in a future post.)

But it seems that there's a little bit of a waste going on here - with about 5 lines of instructions before the banner starts. A little too much I think!

Secondly, the introductory article or feature is massive. We normally suggest that less is more when it comes to copy in an email. This is is definitely on the 'more' side. While not a huge issue when it comes to communicating the message, the problem is that we're missing out on some important clickthrough information. I'd imagine that for Nicks, like with any retailer, enriching your database with customer clickthrough information (ie, leads!) is a huge benefit of online and email.

Just like the finish on an old peaty Islay Malt, this email goes on forever! There's about 7 full page lengths of content crammed into the one piece of communication.

It begs the question. Why is there a need to cram so much into the one email? I'm sure that a simple introduction to each of the 9 (!!) featured items with a click for more and a 'Buy Online' button would have sufficed. Were short and long versions tested?

I'm wondering why it doesn't seem important to collect information on those that have expressed interest by clicking through on a product - and not necessarily gone ahead and purchased. One would think that a re-campaign to that segment with a special offer would yield some nice results.

And it's not just in the articles that we're missing clickthoughs. I'd really like to have seen the header image click though (especially when it contains a web address). Perhaps also having the site related nav elements - Your Account, Login etc up the top near the header would have been handy.

The shame is that the link to their email service provider is one of the most attractive and best executed CTA's in the whole email...

I'll bet you a Laphroaig 25 Year Old that we can't help you improve your next email campaign! Just drop a comment or contact us!

Heard at the Exact Target Connections 2009 Conference "The pizza industry is like the porn industry—they will do anything to get you to their website," said Bill McCloskey of Email Data Source, when asked to comment on emails from three pizza delivery brands.

Dominos do a great job when it comes to the design of their emails.  They're all nice and neat and are consistent with their site.  They use great photography that does exactly what it's meant to - make you hungry.

They do an even better job of timing.

I love (and hate) the fact that they make me eat pizza every other weekend because of my Friday afternoon pizza alert.  Take this example reminding me that it's cheaper on a Tuesday.

Subject: It's Cheaper Tuesday Order Online Now

But it's not all juicy toppings and tasty, tasty cheese... I think there's a few things that could definitely be done a little better.

Lets start with the Order Online CTA.   Having it hidden down in the bottom corner seems a little, well,  hidden (and inconsistent with their website).

Also, let's not forget that apart from the T&C's, it's all images - and not an ALT tag in sight!

In any case, it's a nice example of good timing.

And i hate you for it ;-)

Preferred Seating is a great site designed to offer a wide range of concert and other event related tickets.  They do a great job of creating simple email layouts with singular objectives and carefully targeting these to the appropriate customer segment.

This current example is a little different from their normal alerts in that it includes a good example of how to use video in an email - a question we get asked more and more often.

Now we all know that streaming video via an embedded player, or even (heaven forbid) attaching a video to an email are both big no-no's due to a mail client's inability to execute the related code and file size etc.

So the workaround is to give the recipient the illusion of an embedded video and then shoot them off to the full version on a hosted page.

Preferred Seating have done this quite well by having a paused YouTube video screenshot as the hook.  Even the most novice internet user is going to quickly figure out that either of the two 'play' arrows are going to set things in motion.  By making the whole image clickable, that's exactly what they'll get - in a web browser.

Another alternative to this would be a few seconds worth of animated gif.  File sizes would be obviously larger but you'd be more likely to grab some attention*.

Which would work for you?  Why not try some tests with either method?

*You'd also need to do a bit of code tweaking so drop us a line for this and some more tips

My Sony has always sent good looking emails. I really like their nice clean lines and effective use of imagery.

I very rarely fail to open these emails as even the subject lines are nice and effective, this one being:

Win tickets to see the Qantas Socceroos in action


How could you not open it after being teased like that?

They also do a good job of helping you navigate what would normally be regarded a lot of copy for an email.

They do this in a few ways: firstly by having the buttons underneath the banner linking directly to the article, and secondly by having a well written (if not slightly lengthy) introduction paragraph and thirdly, by including some 'back to top' links at the end of each article.

Nice work!

Comments, suggestions? Feel free to discuss below.

I really like the new graysonline.com site and how they've re-worked the UI to be far more user friendly and informative.  It's really clean and easy to navigate.

But what have they done with their emails?  Being a long time user of the site, I was used to the old alert style email full of content completely relevant to my interests.

Now I get two or three a day and they're rarely anything I"m interested in.  Case in point is today's example that leads with a Boating related subject line and lead article:

20 metre Sublease on Rivergate Marina Berth

Not only are Grays making the the assumption that I own a boat (I wish), but also that I'm interested in a mooring it in a state 700km (450miles) from where I live!

Suffice to say that my preference centre settings don't have any option to view any Marine related products.

I guess the scattergun approach still works but I'm wondering how much more effective a little segmentation would be? I remember my old daily email alerts had me spending way more than I should but I've not bought a single item in the last year or so.  Wonder if that's the case for anyone else?

Got any other examples you'd like to discuss?

When it comes to email marketing, is customer attention a valuable resource that should be managed with care? Or is it more like a commodity that can be used as needed?

With email marketing, it’s generally easier to send broad-based communication to an entire list than it is to segment, customise and target. The relatively low cost of email negates any savings in terms of reduced volumes. Why spend time slicing up your list when the direct cost saving may only be a few hundred dollars?

For DM, the high cost of print and distribution ensures that you need to get your segmentation and targeting to an economically optimum number that will generate the response you need.

However, we are seeing that over time, lists grow tired. Customers start to switch off after a succession of emails fails to spark their interest. This is measured through declining open rates over time. Unsubscribe rates are low but steady, which indicates that most customers are not opting out. They are not being as receptive as they were to begin with.

Does it pay to invest in getting this right?
What’s the return on investment for keeping a customer’s interest?
What’s the opportunity cost when they switch off?
When it comes to email marketing, is it quantity or quality that we are seeking?

We'd like to hear your thoughts.

A Crystal Ball on the Marketing and Communications business

Well done to the iMedia team (DMG) for putting on a successful event with the Brand Summit 2009. Two nights and two days at Cypress Lakes in the Hunter valley made for 48 hours well spent.


The schedule included an impressive line-up of speakers including:
- Dr Jeffrey Cole on “How everything is blowing apart” and “Why Everything is coming together”
- Peter Williams from Deloitte on innovation, collaboration and porous product development
- Don Peppers on how marketers can take lessons on social networking from bees
- Rohit Bargava busting myths and providing practical guidelines for social media marketing
- Simon Cheng on building an online community that helped fight the fallout from Swine Flu
- Karen Ganschow on how Telstra is using a Twitter team to manage positive and negative chatter
- Mehrdad Baghai looking at the various structural models that drive collective action
- Matt Whittington from Optus on the ‘now’ of mobile content and marketing

Returnity was proud to have been badge sponsor for the event. We liked the presentation, we liked the people and we loved the opportunity to be part of a fantastic production.

Returnity is proud to have been involved in the Sports Charity Ball, a gala night held in support of the McGrath Foundation.

Promoted and produced by Association and Communication Events, featuring speeches from many leading sports personalities it was a memorable and successful evening that raised more than $30,000 through auctions and ticket sales.

Tony Davis, Client Services Director (right) and Gregory Fournier, Senior Business Development Manager (left) attended the event.

Details at http://www.acevents.com.au/charityball/

More pics at http://www.politeinpublic.com.au/event/1110/sports-charity-ball

Recent system updates mean that we have added several new IP addresses for delivery of emails by Returnity. This includes IPs used for bulk email distribution, test emails and system notifications.

We strongly recommend that your organisation ‘white list’ these IPs to ensure that you are able to receive test emails and system notifications during campaign production, as well as seeded emails delivered to your business email boxes.

New IP addresses:
210.10.117.128/28
210.8.238.25/32
210.9.197.73/32

Maths and Marketing Podcast interview with Mark Smith, Portrait Software on Love Digital
http://www.lovedigital.com.au/index.php/love-digital/podcast/maths-marketing

Using analytics to make informed decisions about what to cut from your marketing budget -which channels, campaigns, customer groups to reduce or remove from your marketing activities.

Marketing to less customers
Some marketing can have a negative effect. For example, by making customers aware that their service contract is up for renewal, some will take the offer and renew, while others will be driven away by the opportunity to snare a better offer from another provider.

One of the interesting points raised in the interview is the piece about "recontracting". In particular, Mark talked about telcos sending offers to customers at the expiry/renewal of mobile phone contracts. While some customers will take up the offer of a new handset or extra credit, others will be driven away by the opportunity to snare a better offer from another provider.

A telco client refers to this paradigm "don't kick the sleeping dog". So the big challenge is identifying which customers are the sleeping dogs and which ones will "go fetch".

The same concept applies equally well to Financial Services, Energy, Healthcare and most B2B operations.

I expect that some of this behaviour must be driven by customer satisfaction - how much they enjoy (or loathe) using your product or service.

There are many ways to measure customer satisfaction across a range of channels – call centre complaints, survey scores, email response, competition entries and product/service usage.

By analysing the numbers generated by the history of past behaviours, marketers, with the help of mathematicians, can better identify which customers to target in which channel, as well as identify the customers that are best left alone.

Returnity's Intelligence service is well equipped to help our clients build these profiles.

Returnity has just released a new web site and it's not just a pretty face. Sure the design looks slick but there is also plenty of substance with detail on our full range of services and few things you probably did not know about us:

• Intelligence
• Production
• Technology
• www.returnity.com.au

Since 1999, our roots have been firmly embedded in the Technology space, with our very own email marketing software, react providing our core product offering and the central platform for services.

The real growth and the fun stuff has been gained through our people, the account services and Production team working hand in hand to deliver digital marketing services that generate amazing results for our clients.

More recently we have added a third dimension to the business, Intelligence. When we asked clients what they wanted to see more of, the response came down to this:

• making sense of the numbers, not just reporting them
• providing local expertise; and
• developing winning strategies from the data

The combination of these three pillars - Intelligence, Production and Technology - gives Returnity a competitive advantage that is unmatched by any of our competitors. And it delivers meaningful results for all of our clients, whether that is 'selling more stuff', 'finding new customers' or 'fostering loyalty'.

And if that's not enough, then some of this is bound to satisfy your curiosity:

• Showreel
• Case study: David Jones
• Case study: AGL
• Returnity on Twitter
• Returnity 10th birthday coming soon!!

Recent system updates mean that we have added several new IP addresses for delivery of emails by Returnity. This includes IPs used for bulk email distribution, test emails and system notifications.

We strongly recommend that your organisation 'white list' these IPs to ensure that you are able to receive test emails and system notifications during campaign production, as well as seeded emails delivered to your business email boxes.

Please contact us for the list if you are currently white listing our delivery IP's on the following:

* 02 8213 3000

* 03 9856 2994

* 07 3303 8678

* help@returnity.com.au

Thanks!

For those that have come here from our new look website, welcome!

For those that don't know, we have a new look website! Check it out at www.returnity.com

Winners...

Congratulations to Katherine McKenzie from Department of State and Regional Development. Katherine has won $2500 in online marketing solutions, giving her marketing team a choice of services including EDM campaign management, online surveys, microsites, event marketing, design and build, and email and SMS broadcast.

Grinners...

Pete and Ed were all smiles after they wowed the crowd with their presentation on Maximising Email ROI via Strategic Planning and Innovative Thinking. Download the presentation here.

Triggers...

Following the panel on Trigger-based Email, where Pete’s thought-provoking comments captured the interest of the audience, Returnity received a mention in the SMH Business news.

We have seen impressive results gained by clients who are using trigger-based email and lifecycle communications, with these marketing activities delivering strong uplift in response and post-click behaviour. To read the article, visit Target acquired, finger on the trigger or download the PDF.

And to refresh your memory, here is an overview of what we do...

Intelligence

Taking the time to research and develop an understanding of client-specific business needs, we are adept at developing communications and data strategies that drive marketing ROI. Tap into our strategic mindset:

• Establish objectives
• Customer analysis
• Data planning
• Communications strategies
• Measurement and Analysis

Production
Our in-house production team offers clients the opportunity to outsource all or part of their digital communication. We offer an end-to-end service that provides:

• Creative concept
• Project management
• Pre-production
• Multi-platform testing
• Campaign execution
• Real-time reporting
• Results-driven data analytics
• Customer support and assistance

Technology
Our roots are firmly planted in technology and software development. Our understanding of existing and emerging technologies keeps us ahead of the game. Our technology teams provide a complete range of services:

• Project management
• Solution design
• Web applications
• CRM and CMS solutions
• Building and maintaining complex customer databases

Get in touch with us...

here we are.  ready to spread the word and share the love.  are you sure you're ready? :)