DMA Email Marketing Council Blog

Using email newsletters for internal communications

Email marketing is not just about communicating with customers and prospects. How a business communicates with staff and stakeholders is also an important part of its core strategy. In companies both large and small effective communications can motivate and involve employees and stakeholders - and poor communication can alienate them.

I recently aggregated 3 months of stats for all internal communication newsletters published through the Newsweaver system, and thought I'd share my findings here:

Average identified-opens: 61%
Average click-to-opened: 45%
Average click-to-delivered: 27%

Using email newsletters for internal communications clearly works.

Corporate print publications and newsletters have long been recognised as crucial tools for many organisations. Today email technology can help streamline corporate communications.

The benefits of using email for internal communications are numerous, and can help internal communication specialists:

• Maintain consistent branding and ensure all communications are "on message".
• Target specific groups with specific messages. An organisation may want to communicate different messages to different target groups as part of the same communications programme.
• Simplify the process - everything is done from one location.
• Cut costs of communication, such as printing, phone calls and faxes.
• Set up co-ordinated timed rollouts of the communication, which is particularly important with time-sensitive material.
• For global corporate communications email enables organisations to easily empower regional offices at a local level. For example companies with offices in more then one country can provide head office communications, which can include space for regional messaging.
• Evaluate the impact of the communications at a central or local level.

With the sophistication of email marketing software available today, any size internal communications project, any scope - from local to global, or communication channel can become a slick process with measurable benefits.

Denise Cox
Newsletter Specialist
Newsweaver

Blog Olympics - Passing on the stick

The DMA Email Marketing Blog has been named by 2 esteemed email marketing blogs, Be Relevant and Denise Cox's Blog, as being on their list of favourites...so congratulations to all our contributors!

You can read Tamara's posts here and Denise's post here.

The idea behind this is that we're expected to pass the baton on and list 7 of our favourite blogs - with the rules being that we have to link back to the blog(s) which passed on the stick, but at the same time we're unable to include them in our list of 7 favourite blogs.

So, on behalf of all of the DMA Email Blog contributors, here are 7 (+1) of my favourite blogs:

Email Experience Blog
The Email Wars
Getting Email Delivered
Email Insider
Email Marketing Water Cooler
Smith-Harmon Creative Review
No man is an iland
Email Karma

Kath Pay
Managing Director
Ezemail

Seriously, I'm not addicted...well...maybe...

AOL's fourth annual email addiction survey results are in. It's USA based, however, it reveals some very interesting results, including 69% of users read their emails in bed, 25% on a date and 15% in church. Some other results are:

• 69% have multiple email accounts, which has increased by 17% from last year
• 46% of particpants admit to being addicted to email - up by 15% from last year
• 51% check their email four times a day and 1 in 10 check it more than ten times per day
• 62% check their work emails during the weekend
• 23% check their email as soon as they wake up
• 11% check their email as soon as they get home

Mobile Email has some very interesting results - showing some serious addiction:

• 16% check their email from a mobile device
• 55% upgraded their phones last year so they could check their email whilst mobile
• 41% of mobile users sleep with their mobiles near them so they know when a new email comes in
• 78% of mobile users check their emails whilst on holidays

Email etiquette is also addressed and apparently there are issues with signoffs and spelling.

• 68% said that emails containing spelling and punctuation errors annoyed them
• 74% said they excuse errors when emails are sent from a mobile device
• The majority of signoffs are 'thanks' (44%) and 12% use 'sincerely'
• 'Cheers' irritated 13% of users and 'xoxo' 25%.

You can read the full results here: http://www.CrazyForEmail.com

How will E-mail Marketing cope with Artificial Intelligence?

We all know that Microsoft has made numerous tweaks to Outlook over the years, but for me, there have been few if any revolutionary changes. As a result we have perhaps become a bit complacent that the future of email in two, five or ten year’s time will not be that radically different to the reality today. My view on that has changed in recent weeks. The ‘future of email’ could be here much sooner than well all think and the challenges to email marketing could be profound.

What’s got me thinking was a recent article in Wired magazine on the increasingly fraught relationship we have with email, which to some degree mirrored my relationship with my own inbox.  A few years ago I started using a nifty programme called X1 to index and better search my ever growing email archive. The amount of time (and frustration!) it has saved me has been amazing and today I really couldn’t live without it. This is just one example of how the changes made to Outlook over the years haven’t really been geared to making our experience with email smoother and more efficient.

Now a new generation of software startups have noticed some of the other glaring gaps in Outlook’s functionality and are attempting to fill them. There are new ones appearing all the time but the two that have been receiving the most attention recently are Xobni and ClearContext. Both are free to download plug-ins which integrate with Outlook’s interface and use clever analytics to highlight patterns in e-mail usage. They also provide a range of cool features which automate many of those tasks which can take forever when using Outlook.

Clive Thompson’s recent article on e-mail in Wired magazine is a must read and highlights the excitement that users who have downloaded the applications feel. The piece also points to the potential challenges which could face the e-mail marketing industry as a result. For instance, Clive talks about how Xobni has identified the times when his most important contacts are likely to e-mail him, and how he has used this to ‘switch off’ e-mail during the periods in between.

The ClearContext application also offers the ability to use its ‘artificial intelligence’ to automatically sort a user’s inbox and provide recommendations on which e-mails to read and reply to first, based on who you tend to respond to most quickly. This is a major change to the first-come first served approach which has typified most e-mail use to date.

So the obvious question is how will these new e-mail applications treat marketing e-mails? Will they be automatically banished to a special folder, sent to the back of the priority queue or automatically labeled as ‘spam’. The answer is we don’t yet know. Most of these applications are still at version 1 and it’s difficult to predict how they might develop and evolve.

I think what could be as significant as how marketing e-mails will be classified are the behavioral changes in e-mail use that these applications could encourage. If e-mail moves from being an always-on tool to one which is used more selectively, how will this impact on how often and when we deploy campaign on behalf of our clients? As an industry, we will certainly need to conduct much more detailed research into people’s daily e-mail habits rather than continue to rely on potentially out-dated assumptions. 

Now there are some people who will say that all this is just the latest Web 2.0 fad. These applications could easily remain in the realm of ‘techie geeks’ or they could spread virally and become everyday tools. Only time will tell. In either case, the interest in them will probably not go unnoticed by Microsoft’s developers in Redmond working on new versions of Outlook. Better analytics functionality and an intelligent inbox designed to improve the productivity of employees would certainly be a very powerful USP. On which would certainly encourage businesses to invest in a major software upgrade!

I for one will definitely be following these companies with interest. As an industry we should of course never fear change and innovation - but we do need think ahead and start planning now for the potentially huge impacts, both positive and negative, that these simple pieces of code could have on our multi-billion dollar industry.

By Simone Barratt, Managing Director, e-Dialog EMEA

Email data capture standards – improving consumer confidence

I have signed up to a whole host of email databases and registered with a myriad of websites.  As a consequence I receive a lot of promotional email communications where on the whole the media owner used is clear.  Given that I work in a business dependent on the planning and buying of email for client campaigns, as well as delivering and managing client media for CRM activity, my radar for solicited communication is finely tuned.  Conversely when I receive an email from an unknown source my suspicions are immediately aroused.  What relationship do I have with this brand?  Why are they contacting me?  Where did I give them the permission to send me email?

There already exists a simple way of ensuring email communications resonate, particularly those facilitating third party promotional offers.  As long as the sender does not conceal their identity and uses clear from lines and branded email templates, there should little to confuse a communication with spam sends.  Couple that with targeted and relevant activity and you would hope that such simple steps are helping to preserve the integrity of the channel. 

Unfortunately, a number of data providers renting their bases steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that the treatment of their media in this manner is worth doing.  Some will pass their media from pillar to post, even contributing to pooled media offerings where there is a trend to hide the source of the original permission or opt in.  These anonymous pools of email data only serve to add to a recipient’s view they are being spammed.

It appears there is a real need to up the ante in terms of how responsible data collection and its usage are reflected to the consumer.  Perhaps a data collection ‘kite mark’ could be introduced on websites as a means to offer the appropriate assurances?  This standard could be displayed at the point an individual submits their details alongside a brief description of what exactly PECR compliancy actually means.  For media owners collecting and using email correctly this would merely endorse and reinforce the responsible application of any media moving forward.  Where future communications might already resonate with the recipient as the sender’s identity is made clear, a quality standard mark contained within the body of an email will further serve to offer an additional level of integrity.

This could be another small step towards a better delivery environment running in tandem with existing technical authentication protocols.  In a marketplace where data standards easily slip and reputation is key, it could enable at the very least a more transparent and auditable means of ensuring media quality is at its highest.  There already exists a List Warranty scheme with a focus on offline media; perhaps it’s time to introduce an online equivalent?

Simon Jeffs
Head of Data
www.tmnmedia.com

3rd Party Data Capture or 3rd party list rental?

Once you are maximising your own customer and prospect data (gathered from your website) then the next step is to look at how to utilise other data to get the full benefit from your email marketing strategy. In order to do this effectively you need to make sure you: 

1. Are clear on the target audience; who do you want to receive your email. Look at the profile of your existing client base in relation to what you are promoting in order to ascertain this
2. Have a clear communication strategy. Are you just promoting your product or service on emails; will the same message be reflected in other marketing mediums; or will the email be followed up by a phone call? In most cases the marketing message you send to your new prospects needs to be different to the  one you send to your own customers.
3. Be clear on what you are monitoring. Don’t make the mistake of just looking at the number of people who open or click on the email – the monitoring needs to be related to your key business aims. E.g. people who purchase something or are active on the areas of the website where you need them to be active.
4. Always follow the DMA best practice guidelines (www.dma.org.uk/bpg) and be fully  aware of where the data you are using has come from, how it has been collected and that the data owners’ privacy policies and data collection statements are clear and legal.

Two of the most effective ways of expanding email marketing from simply using your own data to using 3rd party data are List Rental and Data Capture are:

• List rental – where you send a one off mailing (or if agreed a series of emails) to a selection of people who have given permission on another company’s website to receive emails from selected 3rd parties. This is typically priced at a cost per thousand (CPM)
• 3rd party Data Acquisition – where individuals give their details and sign up to become a member of your company’s mailings on a 3rd party’s website or through an off line medium. This is normally priced at a cost per record where the price will vary depending on the amount of information you require, what the user is signing up for and what criteria of people you want to make the offer to.

Email appending: Can you do it? Yes you can!

Absolutely, it is both legal and do-able. Section 2.5 of the new Best Practice Guidelines from the DMA highlights what can and can't be done.

In essence it's all to do with permissions. If a consumer has given permission, in words opted-in, that their data may be shared with third parties, then you're allowed to do it.

Once you've clarified this position, it is best practice to either:

• Send an email from the data owner (the organisation that collected the consumer's data at the outset) explaining that their email address will be passed onto an end user. It's essential that the individual is given the chance to opt-out of this happening; or,
• For the end user, who is going to receive the email address to explain to the individual where they got their email address from, and once again give them the opportunity to opt-out of future communications.

It is worth noting that the same should be undertaken for business-to-business email appending.

Make sure before you undertake any email appending, that you know the following information:

• How and when the list was built;
• If it's a data pool of different data sources, satisfy yourself that the data protection notices and privacy policies were in place when the data was originally collected; and,
• How unsubscribes and relevant addresses are suppressed.

So why do it?

It allows you to open up a new communication channel with your customers, many of whom may prefer to be contacted via email than through other methods. As a result you will reduce your communication costs and be able to tailor the message more effectively.

Video in email

That age old question has raised its head again in the last couple of weeks – ‘can I have video embedded in my email please?’

Haven Holiday’s interesting case study on their recent video in email campaign has been cropping up, and throwing out as many questions as it answers. So... right on cue, here is my soapbox shout on using video in email.

Of course it’s not surprising that email marketers are keen to get in on the online video revolution. The website visiting public can’t get enough of streaming video.

But video in email is not reliable in the way that website based video is. It won’t work for all your recipients, and those it does work for, may well not be happy it did.

Extensive inbox testing is essential if you are embedding video. Some Microsoft email clients for example, use HTML tags that allow video to be played in emails. But others don’t. Only by testing your creative in all relevant email clients can you get a clear picture of how effectively your campaign will be delivered.

If your testing works well and you know clearly which domains will support your video and which won’t, you could then filter your campaign send by domain name, to control its successful delivery. But wait – what about email forwards? You can’t control them by domain, so the valuable viral element of your campaign could be lost, simply because of the unreliability of video.

As ever in digital marketing, the opportunities and developments are dynamic and exciting. I’ve heard of movements in the industry to let you insert java script into emails that will enable video to play. But again, this is likely to be specific to certain ISPs and not supported by all – so the need to test will remain paramount.

Animations in emails can also cause rendering problems. For example, Outlook 2007 won’t support animated gifs. Remember when using animations to have your key message or call to action on the first frame – however briefly it is shown – as Outlook 2007 will display this as the static image.

Beware too, the potential intrusiveness of video in email – particularly when sending to B2B lists where your recipients are at work. In a quiet office with the Boss hovering, who really wants to be seen watching videos at their desk?

The most reliable solution to all of these issues and complications is to use your email campaign as a teaser to drive recipients to a campaign micro site where they can click to view your video clip, at their leisure.

By including a ‘play video clip’ button in your email you can have can a powerful call to action. It’s practically a human reflex now to click ‘play’ when it looks like there is a video to watch. So marketers and ESPs who are wisely cautious but click-through hungry, can reap the benefits of the pull of video in their emails, without actually embedding any.

A campaign micro site with video can become the centre of your integrated marketing campaign, so you can drive traffic to it from a series of on and offline channels and really maximise your return.

Email Marketing: Get Personal with Your Customers

Aberdeen Group (a US based research company) has published a new report entitled ‘Email Marketing: Get Personal with Your Customers’. The report covers the how, why, and what of email marketing personalisation along with the challenges and the benefits.

The report is well written and supported by a case study from within the retail sector and many charts and very useful nuggets of information spread over its’ 25 pages.

The report can be accessed free of charge until 29^th August 2008, here.

Call to Action for Authentication by November 1st, 2008

In June's issue of Infobox, Craig Spiezle, from AOTA wrote an article: Restoring trust in email: role of state of email authentication and the internet trust ecosystem.

In the article Craig promotes a Call to Action for all brands to be authenticated before November 1st, 2008 in readiness for the Holiday Season. As a Council of the DMA we have decided to support this Call to Action by releasing a whitepaper as well as holding a webinar in September and running an event in late October.

To register your interest in either or both of these events, please send an email to Catherine Gibbon and we will keep you informed.

You can read more about Authentication at the AOTA's website: www.aotalliance.org/