An interesting article recently appeared in Marketing Sherpa about an ecommerce retailer who wanted to determine the best day and time to mail their list. This example shows not only the significance of testing, but the role of segmentation in doing so.

The owner wanted to know the best day and time to increase clickthrough rates on their email campaigns. They already knew that Tuesday was the day of the week, but they wanted to take it further to see if the time would be a significant factor. Their tests showed that mailing at 9AM produced a 15.63% higher clickthrough rate than 4PM!

How can you apply this type of research to your business?

Use web analytics to study your email clickthroughs, website traffic and orders. This gives you a black and white control from which to work.

Depending on your site’s content and target market, you might test completely different times. For instance, if your target audience are gamers, you wouldn’t test between 9AM-4PM, because a huge chunk of your audience is in school at that time. You might not begin testing until 4PM.

Segment your list. This is a perfect example of why you’d ask questions to segment your list. In this case, they knew where their subscribers were located, making it easy to set up their test, segmenting their list into time zones. (Obviously, when it’s 9AM on the East Coast, it’s only 6AM on the West Coast!)

Test one thing at a time. In this case, the company determined the best day of the week BEFORE moving on to test the best time of day. Testing the best time of day AND the best subject line will not give you good, actionable results.

Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear your input!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

Datran Media recently released their second annual survey of over 2,000 online marketers, regarding their insight into the best online promotional methods.

Over 82% said they were planning to increase their use of email marketing in 2008. ROI from email marketing was anticipated to be much higher than other promotional avenues by 55% of respondents. When compared with other media buys, email came in on top, over display, search, print and other media channels.

Interestingly, email serves a double purpose, as seen by survey respondents, who leveraged email as a sales tool as well as utilizing it as a media channel.

Email was used to send newsletters by 80% of the respondents. In addition to using email as a sales tool, it was also used to reactivate dormant customers, enhance customer relationships and increase brand awareness.

An important note is that over 81% send TARGETED email campaigns, with less than 19% sending untargeted campaigns. The majority of targeting was based on actions or demographics / location.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
Get Response

Over the weekend I was watching the playoff games, and saw a commercial by Prudential that I thought was a brilliant concept and a good lesson in branding.

If you look around at the many marketers online, you’ll notice they have branded themselves as the Audio Guru, Postcard Guru, Email Guru, Squidoo Guru, etc. They’d like you to believe that they are THE “go to” guy or gal with regard to this subject.

One of the easiest ways to own a niche is to be the first one to label it as your own.

Such is the case with Prudential and their new marketing campaign. I think it’s brilliant on several levels:

1.They are taking advantage of the millions of soon-to-be or already-retired baby boomers. If you look back in history, this crowd has huge influence and money.

2.They are “calling” the retirement needs of this group as their own. They’ve trademarked “The Retirement Red Zone” as the five years before and after retirement.

3.They’ve further branded themselves with a website and advertising which will further position Prudential as the experts for anyone in or entering “the red zone”.

Note: They’ve put a pop-up survey on their website to track advertising effectiveness in driving traffic. If your promotions are both on and offline, this is a great way to find out what is bringing visitors to your site.

The beauty of this is that I can promise you that Prudential is not the only company providing investment advice to those about to enter or just entering retirement. But, they were the first to call it out and NAME THE NICHE and now stand a very good chance of owning it!

Can you imagine how many millions of people will identify themselves as being in the red zone … and contact Prudential.

Brilliant marketing! Now….how can you use it in YOUR business?

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

There was a discussion recently at one of the marketing forums, after a marketer had a number of readers unsubscribe from his list because he sent them a holiday message. No sales message, no bait and switch - just a “Happy Holidays”.

Can you see both sides of this? On the marketer’s side, (s)he cares about the subscribers and uses this as an opportunity to tell them so. To be crystal clear that it is heartfelt, there are no sales links or messages of any kind.

On the other hand, the reader subscribes to 50 newsletters. Every marketer decides to send a holiday greeting. The reader is busy enough at this time of year, without having to open countless emails that essentially say the same thing. Eventually, they get tired of opening them and, if yours is delivered after they reach that point, they may unsubscribe.

So, how can you solve this?

One of the better solutions is to include some type of freebie in your email. Whether it be an ebook on setting goals, some holiday recipes, or a product / service that ties in with your niche, this gift provides an additional reason as to why you sent your mail besides just saying “thinking of you”. Heck, you could even send along a list of cool, holiday sites that you found, which they might enjoy.

No sales pages - no opt-ins.

Just warm holiday wishes and “I wanted to send this along as my gift to you”.

What do YOU think? Comment below and give me your ideas.

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse

This is the first in a 3-part series this month about email segmentation. Today, you’ll learn what segmentation is and why you may wish to use it in your email marketing. Next, we’ll talk about ways to segment your list. The final part of the series will review some common segmentation categories to consider for your list.

Why Should I Segment My Email Messages?

Let’s assume you have written an ebook and developed a web site about buying foreclosed property. Your prospects have opted-in; your subscriber numbers are growing day-by-day, and then…

… you start losing people faster than a skunk at a garden party.

If your readers don’t feel you are talking to them, they’ll go elsewhere. Nobody likes to feel ignored.

In the post, “The #1 Tip for Writing Successful Emails”, we looked at defining our prospect and writing emails directly to that person. That’s the first step.

As your list grows, your readership becomes more diverse (unless you are in a very narrowly defined niche that would only appeal to a very small segment of the population in the first place).

Take our buying foreclosed property example. Those reading your emails might include:

• First-time home buyers looking for affordable housing;
• Renters who are tired of throwing their rent money away;
• Females worried about being “taken” in property purchases;
• New and experienced home flippers;
• Investors looking to buy property low in order to sell high;
• Investors with a rental portfolio;
• Baby-boomers looking for an affordable second home.

Wouldn’t you agree that these readers probably have varied areas of interest, backgrounds, incomes, educations, etc.?

One “personalized” email campaign cannot be all things to all people. The money from your list comes from your readers sitting back and saying, “This person really understands what I’m going through - my frustrations and my goals. I think I’ll follow their advice.”

By segmenting your list, it allows you to speak directly to the first-time home buyer. You can touch on the difficulty of finding affordable property and the frustration of settling for much less than you’d like because that’s all you can afford.

This varies tremendously to educating a real estate investor on the benefits of buying foreclosed property. For one thing, an investor probably has funding available, while the first-time home buyer is scraping a down-payment together. The investor wants to buy low and sell high and is primarily interested in the ROI of a property in which (s)he will never reside. The first-time home owner wants a HOME in which to live and, perhaps, to raise a family.

Two totally different conversations, wouldn’t you agree?

In the next part of this series, I’ll share some simple ways to segment your lists. And, finally, I’ll throw out some segmentation categories for your consideration.

If you have any questions or comments, please add them below and we’ll include them in the series.

Debbi Bressler
Email Specialist
Get Response

Nothing frustrates me more than receiving emails from people who make it next to impossible to opt-out of their campaigns.

This is NOT rocket science people!

There should be a link at the bottom of every campaign email, allowing your readers to click it and - poof! - disappear.

Don’t make your readers jump through hoops. Why force them to reply to your email - with special notations in the subject line - in order to get off your list?

They shouldn’t have to go to your website, where they must provide information they’ve long forgotten in order to fade away into the sunset.

Word does get around about the impossibility of removing yourself from some marketers’ lists. It becomes a running joke…especially if they quote their list numbers on their web site or in emails.

If your email opt-out process resembles the Roach Motel (ie. “Readers Opt In…But They Can Never Opt Out”), please fix it….

….TODAY!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
Get Response

On behalf of the entire Implix family, let me be one of the first to wish you a healthy and prosperous 2008!

I can assure you that we are dedicated to helping you build your business in the coming year. Please be sure to comment below if there are any email marketing subjects you’d like addressed in the coming months.

To Your Success in 2008!

Debbi Bressler
Email Marketing Specialist
GetResponse