returnity

Ad:tech 2011

2011-03-23T16:54:00.000+11:00

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.

"We’re sorry!" - How to create apology emails

2011-03-23T16:48:00.001+11:00

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 Search Insights & How they can help your business

2011-03-23T12:12:00.002+11:00

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.

Quick wins (and not so quick wins) to get into the Inbox

2011-03-23T12:08:00.003+11:00

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!

Where will your email land in the inbox with ISP’s new approaches to email categorisation?

2011-02-08T15:53:00.002+11:00

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: Change of Ownership

2011-02-08T15:35:00.000+11:00

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.

Search Marketing Predictions for 2011

2011-02-08T15:33:00.001+11:00

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.

Returnity Launches Client Support System

2011-02-08T15:23:00.003+11:00

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.

Member get member – what you need to know!

2010-11-18T15:19:00.004+11:00

We are frequently asked about member get member / refer a friend campaigns - are they still legal? What do you have to include to be compliant?

An example we recently noted of a viral slip up came from French Connection. An email arrived in my inbox from online@frenchconnection.com.au and I thought I had probably signed up to their communications some time ago but they had only just added me to their mailout list. However, it turned out that a colleague had sent it to me from a viral campaign they had received. A few fundamental rules were broken here, as the email should have been sent to me with my colleagues name and email address in the envelope details, as well as the ‘reply to’ information, instead of directly from the brand itself.

If you want to learn the fundamentals then read on...

The basics: marketer sends a marketing communication to its existing contacts and requests or provides incentives for existing contacts to forward the marketing communication through the marketers forwarding facility to end recipients (friends, relatives or colleagues of the existing contact) that may be interested in the product, service or promotion.

It sounds easy but further conditions apply...

The marketer must make a clear recommendation to the existing contact that the electronic marketing message should only be forwarded to friends, family, colleagues and other individuals with whom they have a relationship.
The existing contact must be made aware, prior to forwarding the electronic marketing message to the end recipient, of any additional commercial content that will be automatically generated by the forwarding facility and included in the message sent to the end recipient. This includes commercial content such as banners, strap lines or sponsorship messages and images.
On receipt of the forwarded marketing communication it must be clear to the end recipient that the message has been sent by the existing contact (NOT the company). This is where French Connection slipped up.
The forwarded marketing communication must contain information that allows the end recipient to easily contact the existing contact.
Where, on receipt of the forwarded marketing communication, the end recipient hits ‘reply’, the automatically generated reply email address or mobile number must relate to the existing contact NOT the company.
The electronic marketing message received by the end recipient must include a functional unsubscribe facility that allows the end recipient to opt-out of receiving further commercial communications from the existing contact. The facility provided does not need to be automated.
The marketer must not use the forwarding facility to surreptitiously collect any data or contact details relating to the end recipient until such times as the recipient personally provides such information.

If you need more information on how to actually implement these conditions effectively then please do contact us for a more detailed discussion.

References:
ADMA guide to viral marketing

How do you talk to a non-responder?

2010-11-17T17:09:00.002+11:00

We’d all love it if 100% of subscribers interacted with our emails at least some of the time, but the reality is the people that are contributing to your open and click through rates are largely the same for each eDM. Which means that about 40-70% of your list are to some degree non-responders.

So, how should communications to this group vary from messages you send to your responsive subscribers? Here we look at how to form a successful win-back campaign, including tips on some subtle changes you can make to your approach, as well as messages specifically designed to gain an action from an inactive subscriber.

Change the tone of your messaging

If a subscriber is not interacting with your brand then sending them the same style messaging as a responsive customer will not help matters. The same ‘buy, buy, buy’ approach is likely to put them off further; instead entice them back in with a softer sell, a more benefits focused, value-add approach.

Reduce the frequency

High frequency messaging is often one of the reasons subscribers become un-engaged, therefore reducing the frequency of contact is a good strategy for audiences that have become non-responsive.

A recent study run by ReturnPath looked at how various retailers dealt with a subscriber that had, bought a product, continued to have an active email address but did not once open or click on an email for the 19 months that followed. They found that most companies ignored recency of action altogether; continuing at the same level, fluctuating frequency or actually increasing touch points with the subscriber. However some companies did take notice decreasing the frequency of messaging over time.

Try to learn more about them

Showing a bit of honesty can work wonders; state that you have noticed that the existing communications are not hitting the spot and ask them to provide more information about what would interest them in order to add more value to future communications.

Win-back messages

Present them with a unique offer, try to tailor the offer to individuals with any information you may have about them - preferences, previous purchases etc. Or failing that, keep the offer open so that it would appeal to all.

Including a time limit is often a good strategy as it develops a sense of urgency that can increase your response rate. An effective subject line is a key ingredient to the success of these eDMs, as one of the hardest aspects is gaining cut through and enticing them into opening your email.

Send a series of messages, dropping subscribers out as they respond. Vary the messaging in terms of the offer, the creative, the subject line and time of send.

Give them options but don’t be afraid of asking them to unsubscribe

If there are still no improvements in response after implementing some or all of the above strategies then do not be afraid to ask them to unsubscribe, or inform them that they will be unsubscribed on a certain date if no response is provided. With ISPs now looking at engagement as one of the metrics contributing to spam categorisation it is important that you are not sending to a large number of non responsive subscribers. Give them the option to choose their content preferences, change their frequency or to simply leave the list.

In the same study ReturnPath found that some companies choose to just stop sending emails to non-responders after a certain period of time, without any notification. This is not recommended; you should always inform subscribers if you are going to make the decision to end the dialogue completely.

References:

Return Path - The One-Way Conversation: Email Marketing to the Non-Responsive Subscriber (2010)

iMedia summit BBQ

2010-10-12T14:21:00.004+11:00

The Returnity team recently attended and sponsored the iMedia Summit, a networking event for senior digital marketing execs from some of Australia’s biggest brands. We sponsored the BBQ cooking class, a fun day was had by all, check out some of the pics from the day – we hope to see you there next year.

Integrating web analytics into email marketing to maximise ROI

2010-10-12T12:28:00.005+11:00

Measuring and improving the ROI of e-mail marketing campaigns was cited as a challenge by 65 percent of marketers surveyed last year. The majority of those surveyed used reporting metrics like bounces, opens, clicks and unsubscribes to gauge email campaign success. Less than 50 percent were tracking conversion rates and 25 percent considered clickstream data for a true understanding of recipient activity after clicking on a link in the email.

Not all email campaigns sent are intended to drive the recipient to make a purchase but all emails should result in a transaction to allow you to track and measure the recipient’s interest or need. Before you send an email, consider the path you would like the recipient to take and the points along that path you are able to measure. There are many commercial website tracking products available on the market but a well planned Google Analytics implementation should provide you with enough insight to enable you to gauge success and value from your email activity. It’s free to use the GA software but it’s worth investing the time and the money to set up GA correctly, in order to effectively track your click to conversion path and associated goals.

Returnity have recently integrated GA link tracking into our Ehlo email marketing platform. Using this feature will ensure that click-through data from specific email links is referenced as a source in your GA website tracking. As with banner tracking, you are able to identify the specific emails and links responsible for traffic on your website. Take this to the next level and you are able to identify the path a recipient takes after clicking on the link in an email and whether or not it leads to a successful transaction.

By closely monitoring your analytics you will be able to identify obstacles and blockages in the path between engagement and transaction. Through a tracked Test & Adjust Cycle these obstacles can be addressed.

We recently sent an email for a client where the primary objective was to capture recipient details through an enquiry form and identify which services where of most interest. The initial email sent got a fantastic delivery and open rate, and the click-through rate was above average, however the number of completed forms was disappointing. Through in-form GA tracking we were able to identify the drop-off point in the form and make an adjustment. The email was re-sent the following month with a significant improvement in results.

It’s that simple to control and maximise your ROI.

(Survey Metrics: from MarketingSherpa).

3 PILLARS OF GOOD DELIVERY

2010-09-02T09:28:00.007+10:00

Delivery is fast becoming the hot topic in the email world. Major ISPs such as Hotmail, GMail and Yahoo constantly have to evolve their platforms to contend with and out-wit the spammers. It is estimated that 55 billion spam emails hit the larger ISPs on a daily basis*. Hotmail estimates 3.8 billion attempt delivery into Hotmail.com, Live and MSN inboxes on any given day. ISPs go to great lengths to create complex barriers of entry to protect their customers and provide a safer environment in blocking or syphoning off suspicious emails into junk folders.

As legitimate email marketers it is difficult to keep abreast of the ISP entry changes and ensure that you are demonstrating best practices across the board with your online activity.

There are three principles that can be adopted to improve your online reputation which in turn will help you broaden reach and be in a strong position to grow a healthy customer database that is both engaged and more cost effective to run.

EMAIL IDENTITY | SENDER REPUTATION | DATA INTEGRITY

ISPs have a multi-faceted and complex barrier of entry. They use a number of criteria to deem whether your messages are genuine or coming from an unknown or suspicious source. With increasing volumes of spam and phishing scams, detection procedures have become more sophisticated, using a scorecard based on performance across a number of metrics. A combination of putting your ‘best foot forward’ in these fundamental areas will help increase your reach and ultimately your ROI.

With email fast becoming the most cost effective marketing channel, it makes sense that you would want your messages to cut through; investing in a great proposition and creative becomes a futile exercise if you are only reaching a small part of your subscriber database, and losing out because the ISPs are deeming your messages as suspicious.

Demonstrating best practices in the building of email identity, treating subscribers with respect and using legitimately acquired data are three wins that will enable your messages to fulfill their potential.

EMAIL IDENTITY

Authenticate your email, implement Sender ID & DKIM
Establish a sending frequency, it’s about engagement not volume
Provide your physical address and contact details in all communications
Register your primary and secondary domains
Provide a clear and working unsubscribe mechanisim

Sender ID – Simply put this is the process of flagging your domain to an ISP (predominantly Hotmail) that your email is coming from is a genuine sender. Sender ID is a simple DNS query. It is free to run, will help protect your brand from spoofers and provide a clear message to Hotmail that you are a legitimate mailer communicating to customers that have expressed a wish to receive communications from you.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT SENDER ID >>>

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) – DKIM is another authentication method used mainly by GMail and Yahoo! The practice is widely being adopted by other major ISPs as a recognised deterrent. Implementing DKIM is a marginally more involved procedure than Sender ID but once done has the same impact on delivery into a wider range of ISPs. DKIM works on the principle that an encrypted ‘private key’ is passed through to the ISP receiving server, a check is performed to find the matching ‘public key’ which in turn validates the legitimacy of the mailing, increasing the chances of delivery.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT DKIM >>>

SENDER REPUTATION

Pro-actively manage your subscriber complaints and unsubscribes
Set client expectations at registration, what will they get when they sign up
Offer choices on content types and frequency
If you are asking for personal data, be clear on what it will be used for

Reputation is how you are perceived online by your customers and the ISPs. Building reputation means being clear and upfront about who you are, demonstrating best practices with all your online activity and data capture policies. Reputation is most commonly built on a feedback from ISP customers when we are talking about email. Hotmail for example have a number of ways of scoring reputation. Hotmail use an in-house Junk e-Mailing Reporting system that allows their customers to rank your reputation. This is driven by looking at the percentage of users that mark your mailings as junk or add you to their safe senders lists. To improve reputation it is imperative that you pro-actively manage complaints and a subscriber’s wish to cut their relationship with you.

At Returnity, our email platform Ehlo will handle the automatic removal of subscribers hitting 'spam’ and 'unsubscribe’ from your email program. It’s a common myth that opt-in subscribers do not use the spam button. It is in your interest to remove people that express a wish to no-longer receive your emails.

Reputation can be improved by paying closer attention to relevance through segmentation and personalisation. Reviewing the frequency of your mailings is a proven method of gaining customer trust, it is important to aim for engaging content that keeps customers. Review your results after each mailing, what content was successful, what was not. In order to build reputation it is important your communications are a constant work in progress, they need to be fluid to keep customers engaged. Finally, be upfront about what your customers can expect when they join your email program. Offer them subscription choices on the format of the mails, the content and the frequency.

DATA INTEGRITY

Know where your data is coming from and keep audits
Be transparent about why you are collecting data and what you will do with it
Review points of data capture, ensure you are only asking for relevant information
Use double optin – double consent and validated email address
Remove hardbounces and unsubscribes from every send
Use data validation to ensure data is clean and formatted properly

Ensuring your data has been acquired following best practices is key to building reputation and delivery. Review how you are capturing data and from what sources, have all users expressed a pro-active wish to receive mailings from you?

Poorly managed data can get you into trouble in many ways. Without clear permission you will see high 'spam complaints’ leading to poor reputation. Poor quality data will lead to high bounce rates which leads to emails being blocked or black listed as not knowing if your subscriber data is active and formatted correctly raises suspicion with the ISPs.

ISPs put 'honey pot’ email address in the public online domain as a measure to catch out harvesters not acquiring data through the proper channels. Hitting a honey pot is a quick way to damage reputation and even get black listed. Know where your data has come from and ensure that the recipient has given their permission for you to contact them.

Ensure your data has been cleaned, unsubscribe and hard bounces removed prior to sending an email out to your customers.

Delivery is just the first step, it is not a guarantee that your subscribers will be more engaged, that is down to your proposition and relevancy. ISPs are looking towards using interaction data in the near future to authenticate email, building customer trust and serving interesting, relevant content will ensure you are ahead of the game.

Talk to your Returnity Account Manager about reviewing your email policies, running an audit or for more information and strategies on how to improve your delivery and ROI.

EMAIL IDENTITY | SENDER REPUTATION | DATA INTEGRITY

By Alex Liberty

Email and Social - Does exclusivity pay?

2010-06-02T16:39:00.001+10:00

Email marketing and social media are linked by a common ground of customers who have given you permission to talk with them. Whether through email subscription, Facebook ‘fanning’, LinkedIn ‘connections’, Twitter or other social networking channel, customers who opt-in to your marketing communications are opening themselves to your business or your brand. While cross-channel links from email to Facebook to Twitter (and vice-versa) are becoming commonplace, the more strategic integrations are still working their way through the pipeline to glory.

This blog post on 7 Tricks Email can steal from Social recently published on iMedia Connection caught my eye. In particular, the section “By Invitation Only” deserves close consideration.

By invitation only
“It may seem counterintuitive to limit your content to a specific audience, but doing so creates ambassadors who will share your content for you. People like to feel special, and they like to tell their friends about things that are cool. This model has been adopted with huge success by some cutting-edge online "private sale" boutique retailers. Invitations are required to create an account, and each day, an email goes out to members promoting that day's sale. Members can invite friends via email, thereby earning a referral bonus for each friend who makes a purchase. This tactic can also work as a "friends and family" event. Your subscribers get access to a special promotion, and they get to share the wealth with their friends. This can be a win-win situation: Customers feel good about sharing a deal, and the friends who received the deal might like it so much they sign up for your email marketing.”

(Ben Ardito: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/26787.asp)

We all love an experience that is “truly” exclusive and most of us would get busy sharing the story on the back of a memorable experience. Yet most marketers find it too difficult (too risky) to make the sacrifice of excluding the majority of their customer base to create something that is rare and unique and worthy of word of mouth.

Do exclusive clubs have a place in the marketing suite?

If word of mouth is the new currency in marketing, is it worth shunning some customers in order to create a group of passionate brand ambassadors?

returnity 2009 Email Benchmark Report

2009-12-08T10:24:00.000+11:00

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.

Inbox roundup - Reminders Only

2009-11-26T16:48:00.004+11:00

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.

Inbox roundup - Something for everyone

2009-11-18T09:11:00.005+11:00

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.

Double Opt In - the why's and how's

2009-11-10T18:04:00.006+11:00

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:

A registration form is completed
A confirmation email is sent to stated email address
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:

The recipient can verify that the email address supplied is correct and that they own it
The recipient has a chance to add this address to their contact or safe senders lists
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.

Inbox roundup - How much is too much?

2009-11-04T19:31:00.001+11:00

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!

Pizza time followup

2009-10-20T16:59:00.000+11:00

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.

Inbox roundup - Pizza time

2009-09-30T10:02:00.000+10:00

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 ;-)

Video in emails

2009-09-29T10:30:00.001+10:00

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

Inbox roundup

2009-09-28T11:40:00.004+10:00

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.

Inbox roundup

2009-09-25T14:14:00.011+10:00

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?

Customer Attention: Valuable resource or marketing commodity?

2009-09-16T07:55:00.006+10:00

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.

iMedia Brand Summit

2009-09-10T18:48:00.006+10:00

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.

Sports Charity Ball

2009-09-10T18:42:00.005+10:00

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

New IP Addresses

2009-09-09T09:28:00.008+10:00

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, Marketing and Sleeping Dogs

2009-06-12T09:51:00.005+10:00

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.

Evolution of a business - we're almost 10!!

2009-06-11T14:25:00.007+10:00

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!!

White List IP address update

2009-06-04T17:21:00.002+10:00

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!

new website

2009-05-29T16:46:00.002+10:00

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

Click Newsletter

2009-04-02T18:37:00.001+11:00

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...

about time

2009-03-27T18:11:00.000+11:00

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