Are your Email Marketing Campaigns Suffering from “Blockage”?

A percentage of all email transmitted never reaches its intended recipient.  This is an issue email marketers have to contend with just as the “postal” direct marketers have always had to deal with the issue of “undeliverability”.

Direct mailers took steps to ensure better penetration:  list hygine, CAS certification, bar codes, etc.  The one issue they could never solve and never will is “Does the local post office/mail carrier take the received mail to its final destination?”  The point is that you’ll never get 100% of the mail you paid to be delivered actually delivered.  This pertains to both offline and online mail.

A seasoned direct marketing vet will tell you it doesn’t matter so long there’s a positive return on investment.  Bottom-line:  there are certain things that are out of your control as a marketer.  But like the direct mailer there are steps you can take to improve your email deliverability, just as there are things which are simply out of your control.

1.)  Can you, the sender, be trusted?
2.)  Content:  is there copy that raises red flags for the ISP and on down the line?
3.)  Subject lines:  again, there are words to avoid – and there are more than simply the words you can’t say on TV!

An article published at Marketingprofs.com provides some good insight into these
challenges and what you can do to overcome them:  See it here.

Direct Mail Drives Online Traffic and Sales

A study of online shoppers conducted for the USPS by comScore found that online
consumers who received a catalog in the mail from any given retailer were TWICE as likely to make an online purchase at that retailers web site.  Data compiled from the 6,400 responses showed that catalog recipients account for 22% of web site traffic and 37% of e-commerce dollars.  More surprising and worth noting is that online consumers receiving a printed catalog in the mail made 15% more transactions, their online spending was higher by 16%, and they  viewed 22% more pages the retailer’s site. These higher levels of online engagement deepened their relationship with the retailer, introduced consumers to more products and increased brand awareness.

This is especially true with Business-to-Consumer selling, and this is not from the study,
but rather from my own observation and experience.  Why?  Because there are few good B2C opt in emails lists for marketers looking to score immediate sales rather than brand identity leading to subsequent sales.    The email lists available are for the most part  non-transaction-based lists.  For example, The Pottery Barn rents its direct mail list of buyers, but not its buyer email file.  If you market a product that is a perfect match for the Pottery Barn customer and want to do email marketing you won't be able to avail yourself of the PB file.  In fact, there are no "transactional specific" lists of this nature available.  Virtually all email files are generated via website registration, enewsletter subscriptions, and online surveys.  There's a big difference in having an "interest" is something and actually pursuing that interest with your dollars.  Ask any catalog marketer which lists work best for prospecting, and you'll discover that "interest/lifestyle" lists are money-losers.  So if these lists rarely work
for the niche, targeted direct mailers, what makes anyone think they'll work via email?

If you market cell phone service or vitamins or some product that doesn't require the
targeting you can only get via catalog buyer files and magazine subscription files, you have many more email list options available.  But if you need to drive sales and you need a positive ROI -- and who doesn't -- consider using the plethora of good direct mail lists available to reach "real buyers" and use these to direct traffic and sales at your website.The data show that any kind of direct mail can boost online sales.  For a look at the complete study click here:  USPS Whitepaper.