Return On Subscriber - Email Marketing Blog

Even though email marketing is a permission based marketing channel (hopefully), you still get some irate emails in all caps requesting removal.  Emails like “REMOVE ME NOW, I HOPE YOU DIE” or “I WILL NEVER USE YOUR COMPANY” are common replies. What can you do?

This particular email was a small victory in the email wars:

“Remove me please.  Nice looking AD, by the way.”

Validation of great creative from a unsubscriber. What more can an email marketer ask for?

Woot.com has built a great business and brand using great copy and a unique business model.  The following personalized email they sent to me really illustrates this.  I will let you read for your self:

WOOT, INC. INTERNAL EMAIL 
STAFF EYES ONLY 

Attention Woot employees - 

We are now entering the final phase of preparations for the Woot-Off planned for midnight tonight. This is when we depart from our usual deal-a-day model and sell one product after another, offering a new deal as soon as the previous one sells out. For some reason, Woot members like my name continue to have high expectations for this event. We must make every effort to ensure that they feel disappointed and betrayed. 

All workers should be physically and mentally straining to make this Woot-Off a success, like every muscle in a wolf’s body strains to capture and devour its prey. We expect total compliance with the following objectives: 

• Make sure the stables are thoroughly cleaned and the horses properly groomed and shod. As you know, Commander Rutledge prefers to lead us on horseback during Woot-Offs. (more…)

“1 week only: Free Custom Cover Book”.  Awesome right?  No.  It’s actually a “Buy one Get one Free” offer. Semantics?  No.  Bummer?  Yes! These types of misleading subject lines do more damage to the brand than the subscriber.

Fool me once? Shame on you.  Fool me Twice?  Ask George W. 

Now maybe I misintrepreted this email from Snapfish, but it look like to me it says: “order one, get the second free with Coupon Book108″.  Isn’t that called “Buy One Get One Free”?

This tactic may work in other marketing channels but it’s not going to work in email.  We will find out the true offer the moment we open the email.

Be honest and your audience will trust you.  Trick them and they will stop listening. Or worse, they will unsubscribe.

Do you rent 3rd party email lists for acquisition and lead generation?  Costs are dropping.

Foliomag.com is reporting that the downturn in the economy has resulted in a downturn of CPM rates for both B2B and B2C lists:

“Permission-based e-mail b-to-b, which is the highest priced category, saw a decrease of $12 per thousand to a straight average price of $293 per thousand. The second largest price decrease occurred in the permission-based email b-to-c lists, which saw a decrease of $11 per thousand.

“The findings are extraordinary, yet not surprising, considering this is a mirror of the U.S. economic conditions,” Worldata senior vice president Ray Tesi said in a statement. “It is likely this trend will continue, at least for the next quarter or two until the U.S. economy is stabilized. We are seeing strong usage in the Technology, Small/Medium Business, and HR channels of the business-to-business category, as b-to-b marketers take advantage of this attractive pricing.”

I have seen wildly different results for email list rental campaigns. Success usually comes down to list targeting and concept execution. If one step of the process is off, you can lose the conversion and waste your money.

If you are considering renting an email list, ask for references and average metrics. If the list broker will not provide these, keep looking.

List Rental Prices See First-Ever Decline

There has been a crackdown in recent months by blacklists and ISP requiring COI (confrimed opt in or double opt in) more and more. Because of this, we have recently started moving to comply with this trend. It appears that we are not the only people on this bandwagon; I have received three re-confirmation emails in the past week, with the most recent from SumbleUpon.

A client of mine recently started this process with us and it is nearly 100% guaranteed to keep you from getting blacklisted. There is a very high percentage of your list that you, as a sender, will lose due to non-confirmation - the question is, is it worth it?

So for any senders out there that have recently done this or are considering doing a confirmation email, what are your thoughts? 

One of the more frustrating promotion ideas in email marketing to me is the one day deal, as seen below.

There are multiple reasons I don’t agree with this concept. On the top of this list is the fact that most people can’t make it through their inbox in 1 day anymore. This fact has a domino effect on the rest on the conversion opportunity.

If your goal is to get a conversion, don’t start with “Today Only”.  Why?  Because know you might not even get the email opened, as someone might concede the offer as over. (What day is it anyway?)  The date is a very small piece of Inbox landscape. Words like “Hurry!” and “Limited Time” can get the same meaning across without losing subscriber interest.

Another issue here is that this is actually a pretty good subscription offer.  Why not get it into the subject line?  ”All Titles $6.99 for a Limited Time.  Don’t Miss Out!”

So I was a few days late, but clicked through out of curiosity.  The landing page was still intact. This frustrates me because they didn’t stick to their guns and take the offer down.

If you truly have a timely promotion, like a re-release of event tickets, or 1 television to giveaway, by all means go for it. If not, create a great offer and give it a few days to convert.