Driven to deliver value
through measurable results.
NOW & NEXT
-
Email Engagement and the Spam Wasteland
Posted by Jeff Batte on Thursday | February 9th, 2012
In the days of direct mail dominance, marketers would eagerly send 10,000 pieces of mail, knowing that 9,500 of them would hit the recipients’ trash receptacles – most without even a glance. This was okay. Heck, it was great! After all, 500 responses would surely sell at least 200 raincoats, right? Somebody get my ROI calculator.
Unfortunately, many marketers continue to apply the same thinking when using direct mail’s younger, sexier and less expensive protégé: email. Who cares if 75% of your list isn’t responding, right? You’ve got 25% opening and 7% clicking … seriously, where’s my ROI calculator? Wait a minute. Not so fast. There’s a very real danger in this approach that can have a lasting effect on your bottom line.
It all starts with your customers’/prospects’ ISPs, or Internet Service Providers. Let’s use Google’s Gmail as our example. Although Gmail is a free product for its end users, they have an enormous incentive to acquire and retain Gmail users. That’s right, those ads that comprise almost a quarter (see image below) of the Gmail user interface aren’t just there to provide you with helpful suggestions. They make Google money – a lot of money. In fact, Google currently has hundreds of millions of Gmail users, and those users’ clicks on ads helped to boost the big G to a reported $8.8 billion in ad revenue in fiscal year 2010. That’s billion, with a “B.”
It is easy to see, then, why the ISPs have a lot on the line when it comes to the end user’s experience. Poor experience equals attrition, and there are plenty of players out there who would gladly welcome displeased Gmail refugees, including Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Hotmail, and even our old friends at AOL. To that end, the ISPs spend a lot of time, effort and money to optimize nearly every aspect of the experience, including layout, “To” and “From” field format, how email conversations are structured, and – most important to this discussion – SPAM filtering.
You see, when SPAM filtering began it was pretty straightforward stuff. The bad guys were trying to sell us black market Viagra or knock-off Rolex watches, so the ISPs filtered emails to the newly invented “SPAM” folder based on keywords like “Viagra” or “Rolex.” That was good for everyone. Well, maybe not so good for Rolex or Pfizer. For the rest of us, though, it was a welcome reprieve from what had become an almost unbearable onslaught of unwanted communications. We had our inbox back.
Over the years, though, it has become much more difficult to really define SPAM. Is SPAM simply email without permission, or are there other factors that could cause an email to be considered SPAM? To the latter, the ISPs now almost unanimously say “Yes.” So, what does this all mean to you? Well, remember the 75% of your email list that wasn’t opening or clicking? Their ISPs are noticing that they aren’t interacting with your emails, and over time you will almost certainly find yourself surrounded by ED meds and fake watches. But wait, there’s more! This inactivity doesn’t just affect your delivery to the unengaged list members, but can also affect your shot at getting to the inboxes of those who ARE opening and clicking. Yikes!
Let’s take a peek in my SPAM folder to see which companies have fallen victim to my, or others’ inactivity, shall we?
You can see I’ve got the aforementioned Rolex and Viagra standards, along with some other regulars pushing mortgage products and tires. But that isn’t all. In the last few days, Gmail has also ushered emails from Motorola, Art.com, and The Adolphus hotel past my inbox. These are all emails I’ve asked for. In fact, I’ve always rather enjoyed the Motorola emails, and The Adolphus in Dallas is really a nice hotel…or I wouldn’t have given them my email address.
So, how can you avoid ending up in the abyss with Motorola? Well, there is no magic pill. However, I suggest these seven steps marketers can take to adjust to the new rules of the game:
- Apply the Tourniquet: Identify your inactive subscribers and segment them out. Now that you know these customers/prospects are doing more harm than good, stop the negative impact by excluding them from regular mailings for the time being. In most email platforms, this is a relatively simple exercise of running an activity report and creating two, or more, lists based on activity levels within recent months.
- Do Some Profiling: Marketers have varying levels of data on their subjects, so this step can have varying impact, but to the extent that you can, try to find commonalities within the inactive group. Perhaps they opted in as part of registering for a white paper or seminar or promotional offer. Or perhaps a majority are women, while your content is oriented toward men. Even if all you have are email address, you may find commonality among the domains/ISPs. If this is the case, you’ve likely identified ISPs that have already started sending your email to the SPAM folder.
- Test the Basics: There are a number of basic elements to test for reengaging subscribers, the easiest of which is alternate subject lines. You’ll also find that changing your day/time of deployment, frequency, ‘From’ address, and email format (text vs HTML) can all have a positive impact on engagement.
- Ask For an Update: One of the most effective ways to get a subscriber’s attention is to prompt them to update their profile/preferences. For some marketers, this may take some extra legwork. If you’ve always just assumed that your subscribers want all of the email your organization sends, you’re probably fooling yourself. Work to identify the types of email you send (brands or product lines, marketing emails, special announcements, company news, etc.). Within most email platforms, you can easily establish a communication preference center, which should identify all of these types as options.
- Survey Subscribers: While you are not likely to get a significant response, consider surveying these recipients to help provide insight into their inactivity.
- Change the Channel: Because people change their email addresses, a lot, you may find that reaching out to them through alternate channels will earn you an updated email address that is checked more frequently. I suggest trying an inexpensive direct mail postcard, as well as leveraging your social media presence to prompt the update…you may want to also consider an incentive to accompany the request.
- Welcome Them Back - After each email message sent to the inactives, change the status of those recipients that opened or clicked a link “active.” And send them a message thanking them and welcoming them back into the conversation. This helps keep your focus on converting the inactives and tracking your success in those efforts.
It can be a real chore to get your inactives back, but the improved delivery and monetization opportunities that come with having an engaged audience is well worth the elbow grease. For more information on engagement strategies, email, or related questions, feel free to contact Jeff Batte, our resident eCRM strategist at Meers.
Leave a Reply
February 22, 2012 | 6:03 pm
I definitely agree with the multi-channel approach. I tell my clients all the time to try postcards to re-engage. Up to 30% of your email list can turnover per year.. Gotta find another way to reach out!
I feel like the “welcome back” to re-activated subscribers is a little too… creepy? Stalker-ish? Surely, it depends on copy, but I feel like that leans on Big Brother if you’re not careful.
Nice post, Jeff. Viva la re-engagement!
Jessica