This year we rated attendees on their digital marketing skills. Some were pleased to find out they had George Clooney like qualities, whist others were not so pleased with the comparison to Charlie Sheen...

Thanks to all that came along to see us, we hope you enjoyed the conference.

We are pleased to announce the winner of the dinner for two at Café Sydney and a show at the Opera House - Monica Ulibarri from SBS.

The day after the tragic earthquake in Christchurch, Expedia made the epic blunder of emailing its Australian database to promote cheap holidays in New Zealand, and illustrated the offer with a large image of Christchurch Cathedral’s spire, which was of course destroyed in the quake.

A sincere apology was delivered to the same subscriber group from the General Manager of Expedia Australia and New Zealand the following day.

Subject line: Hurry! New Zealand 72hr Sale Ends Soon

Subject line: Apologies from Expedia

Apology emails are never an easy campaign to pull together. However it is an effective way to quickly, correct a mistake in an earlier communication or apologise for any disruptive online or offline issues. And on a positive note apology emails can actually turn out to be some of the best performing campaigns due to the cut through they create.

So what makes a good apology email?

• Speed – send the apology as quickly as possible, but do take the time to make sure there are no issues or mistakes with the content!
• Make it clear you are apologising in the subject line – creating the vital cut through mentioned above.
• Guys give flowers, companies give free shipping, discounts, etc – an offer is generally not required with apologies to communication mistakes, more with downtime to a site or anything that has been detrimental to your customers.
• Use humour appropriately – this may be appropriate with minor mistakes, however with sensitive issues such as Expedia’s faux pas, humour is not recommended.
• Sign off from an Executive when apologising for any major issues.

Other examples:

Subject line: We’re So Sorry!

Subject line: Email Error – Duplicate Send

Subject line: A message to all our customers

Google has access to a lot of search data, so why not use it to your advantage? Google has put together some insights on how people used search in 2010 and we have found the analysis to be quite helpful and wanted to share it with you!

For those in the financial sector, Google found that for every 10 online applications driven by search, another 4.5 applications were processed offline. We found this insightful as it highlights the important relationship between online and offline, as well as justifying investment in SEO and paid search.

Returnity has seen the rise in obtaining coupons online over the last 12 months, as has Google – with nearly 60% of mums searching for coupons or special offers online. With the rise in coupon searches, it makes sense to incorporate a coupon strategy into your online marketing plan.

In the travel industry? Best to make sure your website is up to scratch, including the ability for customers to leave reviews, as 40% of travelers search for consumer reviews online before booking their next trip.

For those of you planning to invest in online marketing for Christmas this year, you can feel safe with the knowledge that 89% of consumers started their Christmas shopping online in 2010. Returnity have obtained some fantastic results for our retail clients over the Christmas period by ensuring their brand is present in the research stage of the buying cycle, leading to more sales both on and offline.

Google has some more interesting facts in their video, so take a look and see how you can apply them to your business and improve your online strategies.

Last month we provided an overview of the changes in ISP email filtering techniques that are currently being rolled out by most of the main players (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail). This month we’d like to give you a brief run through of the key strategies that will help your email land in full view of the end recipient. These include:

1. Save to safe senders

An oldie but a goodie. At every opportunity encourage subscribers to add your ‘from address’ to their address book/list of safe senders. Even with all the new engagement metrics this is still going to be a strong influencer in email filtering.

2. Cut out the haters

Remove any subscribers from your list that have hit the spam complaint button on your email. If you’re not sure how to do this check with your email service provider, they should have feedback loops set up to capture this information.

3. Keep a close eye on response at an individual level

Continually assess subscriber engagement – who is opening, clicking and purchasing, and who is not. Group those that have been inactive (no opens or clicks for a period of time) and target them with a multi-touch re-engagement campaign. If there is still no response, inform them that they will be removed from the subscriber database but can resubscribe at any time.

4. Optimum subscription process

If you haven't already, implement a best practice subscription process:

• Obtain clear permission – opt-in rather than opt-out
• Send a welcome email - detailing the value proposition of the program, include likely frequency (if there are no options) and links to opt-out and update details. More information on the importance of this is in point 5.
• Provide subscribers with a way to update their contact details and supply key preferences. This will mean that recipients can change their content and frequency requirements as needed, as well as updating their email so they remain on your list.
• Include clear links in each email to your profile manager and unsubscribe
• Make sure your unsubscribe takes no more than 2 clicks and is not behind a login page
• In the footer, note the email address that is subscribed to the list so the original recipient and recipients of forwarded emails can clearly see which address is subscribed. This should reduce spam complaints.

5. The importance of a welcome message

Including engagement metrics in email filtering techniques means that the first few emails need to be received in the inbox in order for engagement to be assessed. So take advantage of the high engagement seen in new subscribers by sending them a welcome email immediately after subscribing. Then don’t leave it too long before sending your first actual email, and please make sure its relevant!

6. The holy grail – third party certification

Getting certified by a third party such as Return Path basically puts you on an exclusive whitelist that will give you the green light into more than 1.8 billion mailboxes worldwide. This really is the holy grail of deliverability, however becoming certified is an involved process that requires every aspect of your program to be best practice. Want to find out more about this? Email jae@returnity.com.

7. Simply create engaging content...

And of course the hardest and most involved strategy is.. providing valuable content and keeping subscribers engaged, but that is a whole other topic!

Over the past 6 months new techniques have been deployed by Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo to categorise emails within the inbox. The main focus is to identify messages that are not ‘spam’ as such but are perceived as unwanted or irrelevant to the recipient and filter these out into different folders within the inbox.

The proposed reasons for the changes are to reduce clutter within the inbox, creating a better user experience for their customers; and to reduce 'false positives' – incorrectly filtering out messages as spam, something that Yahoo have been heavily criticised for.

But unfortunately the changes have quite serious implications for email marketers, as many programs will see a large decrease in reach and therefore response.

However this is not all bad news, if you take the time to analyse and segment your database in order to target communications and increase relevancy, than you will hopefully see an increase in response, as your cut-through increases due to the reduction in clutter within the recipient's inbox. It is those marketers that are still employing the broadcast approach, or are happy to run with dated or repetitive content that will suffer from these new developments.

Click through to read a breakdown of each ISP's approach to email categorisation. In addition to these, existing variables such as 'saved to safe sender' and spam complaint rates still play a key role.

Next month's Click! will look at strategies to help keep your emails in the main inbox.

Gmail's Priority Inbox:

Automatic sorting looks at a variety of signals to establish the importance of the email, including which messages you open and which you reply to. Users can also increase sorting effectiveness by using the buttons.
In box organisation separates emails into sections:

• important and unread
• starred
• everything else

These standard sections can be customised to individual requirements.

Hotmail Sweep

This is user generated inbox filtering. If a user wants to move (or delete) an email into another folder (this could be junk or it could be a sub categorisation like 'shopping'), they simply have to check the box next to the message from that sender.

They can then choose to sweep all future messages from that sender into the designated folder.

Hotmail automated filtering

Microsoft are also now looking at inbox data to determine how an email should be categorised. The influencing factors include:

• Messages read, then deleted
• Messages deleted without being read
• Messages replied to
• Frequency of receiving and reading messages from a source




Yahoo manual mail filters

The filtering feature allows users to position incoming mail into various folders in order to sort and group messages. Filters are created on values within any of the following elements:

• Sender
• Recipient
• Subject line
• Body copy

100 filters are available on Yahoo! Mail and 200 on Yahoo! Mail Plus.

Returnity is very pleased to announce the transfer of ownership of our business to Salmat Limited (SLM. ASX). Returnity is one of four companies in a portfolio acquisition that was announced on the ASX on Wednesday 22 December, 2010. The four Photon companies forming the transaction include Returnity, C4 Communications, Be.Interactive and MessageNet.

Returnity CEO, Paula O'Connell said, "After ten years with Photon Group, we are thrilled and excited to be moving ahead with Salmat, to play an integral role in their multi-channel growth strategy. Salmat has been very successful in the traditional direct marketing business for a long time and in recent years they have been building their capability in digital and interactive. Returnity is a strategic acquisition for Salmat's emerging digital business and we look forward to working with a group that has an amazing record of investment in people, products and technology".

Returnity is all about its people and the services that we deliver to our clients. We love what we do and we are driven every day by the opportunities that come our way. We are confident that under Salmat, our people and our culture will go from strength to strength and our ability to invest in training and technology will drive further growth within our business.”

The official announcement can be downloaded from the ASX web site:
http://www.asx.com.au/asx/research/companyInfo.do?by=asxCode&asxCode=SLM.

It's that time of the year where search marketing pundits are putting together their search predictions for 2011 and are trying to pick the big trends for the coming year. Hannah Kimuya and Adam Bunn from British search marketing firm, Greenlight recently compiled a list of predictions for 2011 that illustrates the pace that search moves at, and points at potential directions the Australian industry may take.

While in agreement with most of Hannah & Adams picks we have put together some of our own predictions for what will be big in the AU search space in 2011.

At Returnity we think that personalized remarketing/retargeting will become a fundamental component of any search strategy in 2011. Remarketing allows advertisers to target users, who have previously visited their site with personalized banners and text ads across Google's display network of third party publishers. Essentially your ads can follow your potential customers / warm leads around the web with tailored messages! We are now seeing savvy marketers using a combination of intelligent remarketing campaigns, compelling creative and dedicated landing pages to pitch targeted offers / discounts / incentives to entice users back to their site, after they've fallen out of the conversion process. The Returnity search team has been testing Remarketing (via Google) within our clients paid search campaigns. Google remarketing campaigns have typically delivered higher click through and conversion rates when compared to "regular" display campaigns. We think it's likely that remarketing and the relatively lower CPC's of display (when compared to search) will help to increase the uptake of display this year amongst Australian online advertisers.

Google's display network is now more controlled than it has ever been and provides users with search-like control over display ads. Publishers outside the search space in Australia are also adapting Google's contextual–based PPC model, allowing advertisers to directly list and buy traffic on sites on a cost per click basis. Comparative shopping engines have successfully followed Google's model and offer competitive CPC's and in some instances deliver significantly higher conversion rates (than Google, Yahoo & Bing) due to the highly targeted nature of the traffic delivered. eBay in Australia also recently trialed a CPC offering, however due to average performance the product has been discontinued.

Hannah and Adam also mention Google Instant Preview and we are in total agreement that compelling web design is critical. In 2011 to compete in search (& generally) businesses need to invest in building sites that feature great conversion focused design and usability, excellent content and adheres to the fundamentals of SEO. If we see usage of Google's Instant preview function reaching critical mass amongst average web users it will likely force companies to take a look at their design or they will start seeing a decrease in click through rates!

Unlike the UK, we're dubious on Quick Response (QR) codes getting serious uptake within Australia this year. There has been talk about QR codes in above the line advertising for years now; however we're not seeing many advertisers promote QR codes and more importantly gut feel would suggest that most users are yet to have QR code readers installed on their handsets. Until we see either QR code readers being bundled as standard on handsets, or a significant promotional campaign to drive usage we think it's likely that the humble URL or search based call to action will continue to use as standard within offline media.

Hannah and Adam also talk about the competition with Bing and Google increasing. As much as we would like to see a real competitor to Google emerge it's doubtful that Bing can capture significant market share within Australia in 2011 (even by incorporating Facebook data into the search results).

Still hungry for more predictions? Then check out search engine lands monstrous list of links to 168 marketing trends for 2011.

In November 2010, Returnity launched a new process to manage technical support and user support. It is a web-based platform (JIRA) that is monitored by the production team between 0830 and 1800 (AEDST). Following a successful trial period over the busy December period, we are now moving to a full implementation of this process.

There are 2 ways to make a support request.

For Ehlo users, there is a direct feed into Returnity Support via a link at the bottom of the user interface, Support Request.

Clicking on this link opens a form for you to enter the details of your request. On the receiving end, our Support Team can see the details of your request along with information on the instance, agency and publisher details, your username and login address. All of this extra info helps us get to work on resolving your request as quickly as possible.

For React users, you can email Returnity Support via the mailbox, support@returnity.com.au.

A few guidelines to follow when logging a support request.

Subject line should include the name of your business/organisation, publisher (client) name and a brief description of the problem.

The lead copy of the body should then include:
Platform: React or Ehlo
Username:
Login URL:
Component: Data, Campaign, Report, Admin, Login, Content
Description:
- As much detail as possible to help us resolve the problem as quickly as possible
- Attach a screenshot, HTML or data file as necessary


For example,
Subject: Returnity Click: can’t upload data file

Email Body:
Platform: React
Username: Returnity_click
Login URL: https://secure2.optin.com.au/system/rsp/login2.rsp
Component: Data Import
Description:
I’m trying to upload my email list but the file won’t upload.
Error message ‘Fieldname not recognised’. Please help.
Thanks,
Jon Smith, Returnity


From a user’s perspective, you can expect an initial response from the Support Team within 2 hours of logging your request. The initial response will acknowledge receipt of your request, provide you with a direct contact and an estimate of the time expected to resolve your request.

Please contact your account manager if you have any questions or would like more information.