Category: Email Marketing

Don’t Be Offended By Opt-Outs

Posted by Bob Fladung

It’s easy to get disappointed when you notice a jump in your monthly unsubscribe numbers. Why would people, who once asked to receive your content, ask you to stop sending emails to them? You might be compelled to ask them, “why don’t you love me anymore?”

Of course, if you receive a large volume of unsubscribes in short time frame, you will want to dissect your email marketing strategy. Are you sending emails too often? Is the content you are sending of real value to the people in your database? Did you send out an email in a tone that is uncharacteristic of your company’s voice?

If you are guilty of one of the items above, fix it. But if you’re not, try not to take these unsubscribes too personally.

The number of emails that a customer, or a potential customer, receives presents a challenge in and of itself. A 2014 study by The Radicati Group, a California-based technology research firm, found that the average business user sends and receives an average of 120 emails per day. This is expected to grow to 140 emails a day by 2018*.

With that quantity of emails hitting someone’s inbox, people have a lot of messages to sift through and most days, your email just won’t make the cut. You might catch the user on a bad day where they feel bombarded by content and unsubscribe from many sending sources at once.

It is also possible that given someone’s life changes, your marketing message may no longer be relevant to them. 91% of people have unsubscribed from company emails they previously opted into**. People change their mind, people move on, and your database and blast numbers will reflect this natural cycle.

I recently stumbled upon an interesting article by Julie Knudson that shared tips on reducing opt-outs. Although the tips were simple, they propose solutions for the challenges of volume, relevancy, and engagement.

Through our marketing and lead-generation solutions, we can help you build your email lists, but it’s up to you to keep those subscribers. Although you may be able to use some techniques to reduce opt-outs, don’t be offended by natural attrition. It can and will happen, so keep calm and market on!

Best,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

 

*http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Email-Statistics-Report-2014-2018-Executive-Summary.pdf
** http://www.business2community.com/social-media/104-fascinating-social-media-marketing-statistics-2014-2015-01084935

Where do you stand?

Posted by Bob Fladung

It is easy to get into the habit of judging your marketing campaigns based on your previous successes or failures. But, are you holding yourself to unrealistic goals? Are you not setting your bar high enough? It can be difficult to determine your effectiveness when just looking at inward efforts.

In the grand scheme of things when looking at your industry, what does your company’s open rate and CTR look like next to your competitors?

I wanted to share this great email marketing benchmark guide created by MailChimp.

This guide, updated 3/1/16, found that for the financial industry:

Average Open Rate – 21.49%
Average CTR – 2.77%
Average Soft Bounce – 0.72%

Although this guide is not the end all, be all, it is a resource you can use to take a big picture look and see how you measure up!

Have a wonderful week,


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

 

 

Improving Deliverability and Optimizing Email Lists

Posted by Bob Fladung

As an email publisher, we have a responsibility to our clients to follow best practices to ensure email deliverability and reduce advertiser budget loss.

While this takes manpower, resources, and does not always add to our bottom line, it’s imperative that we protect those that we do business with, as well as defend the list and database that we have worked so hard to build. If we lose our email integrity, we lose everything. 

To protect and optimize our list, we…

1) Only Send Third-Party Messages To Consenting Individuals 

When we offer a complimentary service or resource, we make it clear that individuals may receive third-party offers if we believe that the user would be interested in them. This permission-based (opt-in) technique builds trust and sets expectations for the relationship with our subscribers. 

2) Employ Proper List Hygiene & Value CAN-SPAM Compliancy

We clean our lists often and filter our inactive subscribers using email provider feedback loops and also monitor abuse complaints.

If we have a subscriber report abuse, we immediately flag them and remove from any and all email subscriptions. This process boosts open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates for our advertisers and internal messages. 

3) Limit Our Monthly Sends & Ensure Quality

In order to maintain user loyalty and interest, we think it’s imperative to provide a proper balance between our valuable content and any third-party messaging. Therefore, we set a strict monthly cap for any external dedicated sends. Although this means passing up revenue, we know it improves results for our advertisers, in turn making them long-term customers. 

4) Maintain Vendor Relationships & Manage Reputation

Our Technical Director, David Maher, has proactively managed email services and has maintained personal contacts with major email providers to keep whitelisting and good reputation a major priority. With that said, INO.com boasts long-term consistency with exclusive email server ownership. Reputation is also audited through Return Path Certification and monitoring services. 

What this means for you is high deliverability for your email order.

Unlike many publishers, we do not inflate our list volume by including dead contacts in our list counts. You will get the most out of your ad dollars and a greater return on investment from a reputable publisher!  We are proud of our email integrity and will continue to protect one of our most precious assets through best practices and dedicated proactive management.

Call me to chat about our email availability!

Best, 


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.

Dedicated vs. E-Spon. What makes sense for you?

Posted by Bob Fladung

You have a message that you want to market externally. What is the most effective avenue to promote your offer?

If you think email marketing is the best choice, you’ll need to decide whether a dedicated email or an email sponsorship is the optimal way to move forward.

Several factors will help determine the answer. You may want to ask yourself:

Conversion Metric – Are you looking for direct sales, traffic, or leads?

Dedicated Emails

  • May perform better for higher-bar conversions like full contact lead generation or direct sale.
  • Typically performs well for low-bar traffic or lead generation campaigns.
  • Can offer strong exposure for branding campaigns.
  • The publisher should be able to provide a solid average open rate for the particular content piece (opposed to the unknowns of a dedicated open rate).

Email Sponsorships

  • Open rates will vary depending on the subject lines and email client preview of previously dropped creatives.
  • Your ad will be seen by those actively engaged with the email promotion.
  • Distraction-free as you are the only offer.
  • Can drive sales or bring an influx of leads in a relatively short timeframe.

Available Creatives

Dedicated Emails

  • Publisher will typically need a subject line, HTML code, text backup, seed list, and preferred send time (if offered)
  • Specs can vary greatly between publishers.

Email Sponsorships

  • Typically will need less creative lead time.

Budget

Dedicated Emails

  • Typically priced on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis.
  • The price depends on volume, list volume, and list responsiveness.

Email Sponsorships

  • Priced on a flat rate or cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis.
  • May require minimum send volume.
  • Can be used to test list responsiveness and determine if a dedicated (if to the same data set) will be an effective creative.

—

INO.com offers both dedicated emails and email sponsorships to meet the needs of our advertisers with varying budget sizes.

I’d be happy to discuss all of the options available and what placement(s) would work best for specific offers. We should be able to determine the best method by either having a quick phone call or email conversation.

Best wishes and merry marketing, 


Bob Fladung
Director of Advertising
INO.com, Inc.