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!