October 01, 2012
Industry insiders voice their opinions on the trends marketers should be following. No fads here.
Email deliverability firm Return Path acquired email technology company OtherInbox, the company said on Jan. 10. The acquisition closed in late December, said Return Path CEO Matt Blumberg, who declined to disclose terms.
A majority of retailers continue to email subscribers who have been inactive for more than 40 months, according to a study released by email service provider Responsys on Nov. 17.
September 26, 2011
Geoff Linton is VP and co-founder of digital marketing firm Inbox Marketer, which helps brands use email, mobile, social media and the Web to build engaged online communities of customers and prospects. Its clients include AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark and Publix. A direct marketing expert with more than 20 years of applied experience in both client and agency roles, Linton's experience spans many sectors, including financial services, telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, technology and manufacturing.
Only 81% of emails sent during the first half of 2011 reached consumers' inboxes, according to a study released by email deliverability services firm Return Path on Sept. 20.
Emails that are not personalized with a consumer's name in the subject line generate a 3% click rate, equal to that of personalized emails, according to a study released by email service provider MailerMailer on July 19.
Experian's marketing services division generated organic revenue growth of 10% in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. The unit was the company's fastest-growing segment, said CFO Paul Brooks on a conference call. Overall organic revenue at the Nottingham, UK-based company increased 6% year-over-year in Q1, which ended June 30.
Overall delivery rates across all industry sectors increased two percentage points to 95% in 2010, compared with 2009, according to the Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index. Unsubscribe rates decreased from .32% in 2009 to .19% in 2010, and bounce rates averaged 5%, compared with 7% in 2009.
Hearst Magazines and the Direct Marketing Association will launch the second annual "Hearst Challenge" on June 1. The media company will give a $25,000 prize to the entrant who can best build a model to predict whether a consumer will open or click through an email promotion.
Consumers can temporarily halt the delivery of email marketing communications with a new tool from email marketing firm Silverpop. The Snooze tool added to its Engage platform enables email recipients to cancel delivery of company communications and set the date upon which to begin receiving communications again.
Google, well-known for its April Fools' jokes (remember Topeka?), put a new spin on its email service Gmail for its 2011 spoof. If you were hanging out on Google.com April 1, you might have seen this message just below the search box: "New! Gmail Motion: Turn your email into a true body of work."
A number of organizations have found that behavioral triggered e-mails help build customer loyalty, boost ROI and streamline marketing tasks.
E-mail deliverability varies by international region, with European marketers enjoying better chances of reaching consumers' inboxes, according to Return Path's biannual report on message deliverability.
E-mail delivery firm Goodmail Systems has published its CertifiedDomain list, a whitelist of e-mail senders based on domain reputation. Travelocity, Kmart and The New York Times Co. are among the approximately 500 marketers on the list.
The volume of e-mail marketing messages sent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday hit an all-time high this year. However, according to e-mail vendor Pivotal Veracity, message deliverability was an issue for marketers.
The number of spam e-mail messages containing social media links is on the rise. Security firm MessageLabs detected an attack in mid-November that raised the amount of these messages from only a fraction of a percent to 4% of all spam.
Nonprofit organization Causes has selected e-mail delivery services firm Message Systems to power its e-mail deliverability across all of its sending platforms, including Facebook.
The e-mail inbox lies at the convergence point of two mega-trends in advertising: Marketers forming direct relationships with consumers and marketers working to deliver more relevant, specifically targeted messages to consumers. The inbox uniquely allows marketers to address interested consumers in context.
This week's debacle by the White House to send out unsolicited e-mails has brought the importance of e-mail compliance to the spotlight. While the White House seemed to have made an honest mistake and is in the process of correcting its wrongs, it did show how e-mail marketers commonly misuse the channel.
What's in our mailbox this month: fitness postcards from Retro Fitness, American Woman Fitness Centers, Union's United Taekwondo Academy, and Bally Total Fitness. (We're totally pumped.)
Social data can improve a brand's bottom line and customer relationships. Just ask brands Infiniti and Diamond Nexus.
Here are three must-have data sets that every marketer should include in his or her email strategy.
