Archive for October, 2009
October 30th, 2009
Flu-Related Telecommuting Could Clog Web Traffic, Feds Warn
By Pam Baker
TechNewsWorld
10/29/09 2:22 PM PT
Fears that the H1N1 flu pandemic could bring down the Internet may be overblown, but it’s quite possible that some ISPs could succumb. Internet traffic patterns would be drastically altered if a huge number of people were to start working from home all at once, and there’s no easy and obvious way for ISPs to manage those shifting loads.
Read more….
Chris Nelson | IT & Security
October 29th, 2009
Today Delivra publicly announced the availability of our new social media integration that I hinted at in an earlier post. I wanted to go beyond the press release and our whitepaper to explain our philosophy of social media integration, and why this integration is so important to our clients.
Much has been written recently about whether the rise of social media marketing comes at the expense of email marketing. Experts have staked out positions ranging from “email is dead; long live social media” to “email has staying power; social media is just a fad.” We take the more moderate view, that email vs. social media doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. For Delivra, introducing social media integration isn’t about hedging our bets against the demise of email. No, we think social media integration has the potential to enhance the value of email marketing, rather than detracting from it.
As our marketing manager puts it, “email is the original social.” Consider the Facebook account. I sign into it with…my email address. I have an inbox in which I receive private messages from my friends, and I can also subscribe to notifications sent in bulk by people or brands that interest me. There’s a list of my contacts (think “address book”) to whom I can publish content or links that I think might interest them. Now, Facebook lays on top of these basic functions some unique features–I can’t play Mafia Wars or Bejeweled Blitz against my friends via email–but at it’s core, it has more similarity with email than is commonly acknowledged. In fact, I have my own Facebook account configured to send copies of the most important notifications to…my Gmail account.
So we added social media integration to our email marketing platform, we approached it from the perspective that 
email and social networks are complementary–two sides of the same coin. It’s important to give marketers a simple way to insert HTML code for creating “share this” links in email content, and we’ve done that, as have many other ESPs. But more important to us is collecting data about sharing of social network sharing and feeding that information back into our system, to make email marketing more effective.
For example, our integration tracks exactly which email recipients are sharing which emails, from which email campaigns, to which social networks, and how many people on each network–beyond the original recipient–viewed that content. When an email message is shared to one of these networks, we’re also tracking how many people on those networks–beyond the email recipient–have viewed it. Not only is all of this data available to the user in reports, they can also segment their mailing list, to send targeted messages to individuals based on their sharing behavior. If you have recipients who post links to your content on Twitter, you can follow up and invite them to become followers of your brand on Twitter. If a particular recipient is generating a lot of page views–we call them “impressions”–of your content on Facebook, then you likely want to engage with her differently than you would the subscriber who hasn’t opened your messages in months. And if you notice that some of your mailings are being more widely shared than others, you have a basis for analyzing what gave those messages their viral appeal and applying similar techniques to future campaigns.
At Delivra, our core competency is email. Always has been, always will be; that’s why the tagline “We Know Email” is part of our logo. But knowing email means more to us than just MIME-encoding, handling unsubscribes, and opening SMTP connections on port 25. If there’s a technology that has the ability to work alongside e-mail marketing and make it more valuable–whether that’s social networking, video, or something else entirely–we’re going to make it our business to know that, too.
Chris Broshears | Product Development
NOTE FROM MARKETING: Chris’s Bejeweled score is consistently at the top of the leader board here at Delivra regardless of how long I play the game!
October 28th, 2009
I recently re-read “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell, and thought about how it relates to email marketing. Early in the book, Gladwell talks about the concept that “80 percent of the work will be done by 20 percent of the people.” He then defines the types of people that are essential to information distribution.
- Connectors – Those able to bridge different groups and have large social networks.
- Mavens – Those who are passionate about a topic (or product or service…) and enjoy sharing what they know.
- Salesmen – Charismatic individuals able to get others to follow or agree with them.
With each description, I thought of examples of my own. I have a few good friends that definitely fit the role of the “Connector”. They’re the ones who — when I meet someone new at a social gathering –I find that it traces back to “I met Erin at a Colts game and she told me about this.”
Likewise, I know that if I’m looking to buy anything A/V related, I should at least run it by my friend Brody. While I’m not going to try to keep up with his system, he’s always willing to (gladly) talk about the differences between response time, refresh rate, contrast ratio, viewing angles… Passionate doesn’t quite capture his enthusiasm for this topic.
And Salesmen? Good or bad, I find myself saying “You know, that does sound like a good idea” around my friend Brad (and sometimes it isn’t, but it always does fit nicely in with his plans.)
So, how does that relate to email marketing? Your recipient list likely contains some of each. And if you are able to connect with them, and send them something valuable/interesting/relevant, they’ll help you spread the word. I see a number of marketers that don’t seem to acknowledge that the recipients they’re communicating are different. They don’t take advantage of the information about who opens, clicks, forwards, or purchases based on previous emails. They simply send the same thing to everyone regardless of past behavior.
Our system makes it very simple to create a segment of those who are highly engaged. Use that information to connect even better with those who respond to, purchase from, or help share your message with the rest of the world.
Kris Dougherty | Deliverability & Operations
October 27th, 2009
As a busy marketer and mom, I can tell you that it takes a lot to capture my attention away from whatever my focus may be at the time. Last night after checking my personal email account, I quickly scanned a whole host of emails (50-60 at least.) Some of which, like Land’s End and Borders I had requested. Others…not so much. And then there are the host of emails I receive as a result of having two pre-teen daughters that love to shop. I guess this is their way of tipping Santa off on their wish lists and I guess I can’t fault the sender if someone else opted me in. However, there were many that had compelling enough subject lines or offers that I kept them on file for my holiday shopping.
As I quickly scanned the email subjects and sender addresses, I was quickly able to determine the keepers. Retailers and marketers-take note! With information, offers, and messages everywhere we look, it is critical to capture attention on that very first shot. Without a second thought, while on my phone, I simply deleted the emails that weren’t compelling enough to capture my attention in that subject line.
As I was later doing some research, the action registered with me as to how very important a subject line can be. Having been an email marketer myself for over ten years now, I have certainly pored over my share of subject lines, email content and design. However, looking at it from the perspective of a recipient starved for time and searching for compelling-well, I can tell you I will even think twice about my subject lines. Here are a few quick stats…
- 38 to 47 characters is the average number of characters that show up in the subject line of 57% of all U.S. email recipients’ email programs. -Epsilon (2009)
- 25% of marketers rated Subject line tests “very effective”. - MarketingSherpa “2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide” (Oct 2008)
- Emails with shorter subject lines significantly outperformed emails with longer subject lines. - MailerMailer (2008)
- Emails that had only the subject line personalized (12.4% Open Rate & 1.7% CTR) did worse than those with no personalization at all (13.5% Open Rate & 2.7% CTR). - MailerMailer (2008)
Want to capture attention? Here are a couple of quick tips…
1. Make it compelling
2. Keep it simple
3. Mention your offer without sounding spamish (Words like “free” or “sale”, Characters like “!” or “$”)
4. Keep it between 30-50 characters
5. Know your audience…and speak to them
Still torn on what to say? Try testing two subject line variations and then send your mailing to the winning subject line. A/B or Split Testing can help you do this in your emails. Marketers often test variations in design or copy, but many overlook the need to test subject lines. I guess you can think of it this way…
Poor Subject Line 1,000 emails sent=40-60% Ignored/Deleted
Good Subject Line 1,000 emails sent=20-30% Ignored/Deleted
Excellent Subject Line 1,000 emails sent=10-20% Ignored/Deleted
No science here, just pure experience in my own emails and seeing results for other campaigns. Subject lines are probably the most important piece of copy you will ever write-think smart and make it count!
Carissa Newton | Marketing
October 26th, 2009
Fall color is a favorite season for Hoosiers and a day trip to forested Brown County to enjoy the change is on many families annual tradition list. This year we took the trip an extra mile and stayed the night in Story.
Story is a quaint village founded in 1851 nestled between Brown County State Park and the Hoosier National Forest. The cluster of aging buildings is operated as the Story Inn, a country inn offering fine dining, local produce, world-class wines and historic overnight accommodations in a natural setting.
We stayed in the Old Mill Loft, an apartment-sized suite with an eclectic collection of furnishings. I suspect most all of the furniture has a flea market origin. Nothing matched. No television. No Internet or cell service. A 250 gallon horse trough served as a bathtub.
A national chain could never operate with the hospitality standards maintained in Story. But they pull it off with a tongue-in-cheek down home feel. It’s fun. They successfully managed our expectation of a country experience.
At Delivra we have similar expectation management standards. Other companies talk about customer service – at Delivra we go well beyond lip service. The entire organization is structured from the ground up with customer expectations in mind.
Once you establish an account with Delivra, you begin a relationship with a trusted partner focused on making you look good. You won’t call into an offshore call center or have to wade through dozens of phone prompts to speak with someone that doesn’t know you: you’ll know the NAME of the person you’re going to call and that person will know yours. Security and system availability have similar standards.
We communicate these company principles during the sales process and ensure their delivery throughout a clients stay with us.
That’s our ‘story’. Set standards. Manage expectations. Deliver on the promise.
Neil Berman | President & CEO
October 23rd, 2009
In the modern lexicon of text and IM, the abbreviation YMMV stands for “your mileage may vary.” It’s a shorthand way of saying, “this was my experience or opinion, but yours may differ.”
Before its widespread use as an acronym in e-conversation, the phrase became well known after the Environmental Protection Agency began performing tests to estimate the fuel economy of new cars offered for sale in the U.S. The EPA methods could only approximate the fuel efficiency for a certain model of vehicle, since the actual mileage attained by any particular car or truck depends on a number of factors related to how and where it is used. Therefore, automakers who wanted to advertise their EPA fuel efficiency numbers were careful to add a standard disclaimer: “Your Mileage May Vary.”
We often find ourselves talking with prospective clients who, having experienced poor email delivery results (either with another email service provider, or by trying to send bulk mail on their own), are shopping for the best deliverability rate. We have to be careful to explain that, while we have some clients whose delivery rates are as high as 98-99%, YDMV: Your Deliverability May Vary. Like automobile mileage, email delivery rates are affected by a number of factors, too.
There are many things that an ESP can do to affect deliverability, and Delivra is not alone in doing them. Any responsible ESP will do things like setting up feedback loops with the major ISPs; throttling number of connections and emails-per-connection to domains that limit these; and monitoring reputation of IP addresses under their control. But many other factors affecting deliverability have nothing to do with the technology used by the ESP, and everything to do with the reputation and practices of the sender. For example, if you insist on sending to a stale mailing list containing invalid addresses, then switching ESPs isn’t likely to improve your results. Does your content generate spam complaints from recipients who don’t recognize it as what they signed up for? Then changing vendors is likely not going to be as helpful as changing your practices.
If so much of deliverability depends on behavior of the sender, and if all legitimate ESPs have similar technical controls in place to hold up their end of deliverability, then what’s the difference among email vendors, anyway? In Delivra’s case, the difference is experience. As one of the original email companies, going back to 1999, we have the expertise to diagnose your deliverability concerns. And our high standards cause us to turn away questionable clients whose sending practices–while they may be perfectly legal–are so poorly advised that they impact our ability to deliver mail on behalf of our customers who are committed to doing it right.
Our clients whose deliverability rate reaches 99%, those who place the highest proportion of their mailings into the inbox folder, are those who are serious about following the best practices we recommend. Don’t keep hiring and firing ESPs in a vain attempt to find a deliverability “magic bullet.” Look at your sending practices, and if you’re not sure what needs to change first, select an ESP like Delivra that has the insight to help you improve. But if you struggle with deliverability and aren’t willing to re-examine your sending habit, Your Mileage Will Vary.
Chris Broshears | Product Development
October 22nd, 2009
I met an old business friend for lunch yesterday. He is in the real estate business as a marketing consultant and is looking for another line of work as real estate is not what it once was. Lunch was a way to pick my brain for his new business idea.
The brainstorm is to start a marketing company based on his experience in generating leads for home builders and moving them through a sales process to close.
As he described his experience and tool set it was apparent to me that the process was generic enough to be applied to any business that was looking for new customers. In fact, I immediately suggested a meeting with my sales manager to explore the possibilities with Delivra.
At the conclusion of the lunch my friend summed up the multitude of ideas with a familiar line, “It’s still a numbers game,” he commented. “All I’m trying to do is ensure a high level of prospect contact activity. When that activity is organized into a logical business process, success will follow.”
Simple rule. Good reminder.
Neil Berman | President & CEO
October 21st, 2009
I recently read a number of articles and blog posts advocating that social media is the wave of the future. Which I found intriguing especially given the viral nature and how I have seen successful campaigns spread like wildfire. However, their next assertion that email is dying as a means for marketers to communicate and promote seems a bit off base. Interesting commentary considering that email has really just reached a point of widespread adoption and when surveyed, most marketers are increasing their email budgets to replace former more expensive methods. I was so glad to see Mashable highlight a study of Gen Y illustrating almost the exact opposite. Email is not only here to stay, but is a critical part of their days.
Having been a marketer in a corporate, startup, and small business environment-the story remains the same! What results can I get for the spend that I incur….in other words ROI. Marketing, whether selling directly or not, is accountable to ensure that revenue targets are achieved with a high amount of return on every investment.
Take for example direct mail, sending one direct mail piece often can cost as much as $1.50 once the printing and postage are included. Compare that to email marketing, and even on the high end of pricing, your efforts will be 90% cheaper than that ONE direct mail piece or even better, it can reach 50-80 MORE recipients. Now the point is not to discount one marketing method over another, but the key is results and marketers need to be flexible enough to blend their efforts to match their goals.
One of the key lessons I have learned over the years, having been immersed in adding email marketing, blogging and social media efforts to my marketing mix, is the power of delivering your message across many channels. The concept is simple really, reach wider audiences~achieve higher results. In my own marketing efforts, I view email, social media, direct mail, all as items in my toolbox. I may use multiple tools to get the job done or I may choose one. Either way, I am going to circle back and track the results on my efforts and tie it in with leads generated, revenue earned, or exposure gained. Results are the key to toolbox and making sure that your tool fits the result you want to get is the way you will win.
Are you looking at every tool in your toolbox to ensure that you can achieve those results? Are you effectively combining those tools?
Carissa Newton | Marketing
October 20th, 2009
Here at Delivra, we are serious about our Teams and our Team spirit. We’re proud of the fact that we manage by consensus – there are no silos of information at Delivra. We fully leverage the size of our staff to remain as nimble as possible, often making decisions in hallway discussions or sitting around the white board in a Manager’s office. We’ll gather all the affected people up and make our decisions rapidly – without a lot of fan fair and certainly without the overhead of “pre-meetings” and “wrap-up sessions”. There is a power in this kind of management style: you’d be amazed at the time savings. You’d also be surprised at what it does to morale. If anyone can just call a quick gathering, toss ideas on the table, and then make an informed decision, without all the hassle of getting on several people’s calendar for an hour – when all that’s needed is five minutes! Obviously, there is some risk in this style as well. Fortunately, we’re not dogmatic about not having meetings (in fact, the Management Team has a few standing weekly meetings) and everyone on staff knows when it’s time to make a more formal gathering and allow some preparation for attendees.
Of course, with all this focus on the Team and with all the joking and laughing our Technology staff does, an outside observer might think that we are quick to gloss over problem areas in design or in ideas presented to the group: nothing could be further from the truth! This was illustrated last Friday when one of our lead Developers came into my office with a few sheets of paper and an idea about the new “trash can” feature we’re adding to the media library (to allow users to un-delete something that was deleted on accident). He talked me through several points of consideration and we differed on one small aspect of the design in particular. Well, I knew that we weren’t going to get anywhere fast – so I hollered through the wall at our Development Manager (Chris Broshears). I figured the Developer would want some backup and Chris and I are known for our epic debates. Chris came over to my office, immediately saw the conflict and jumped right in on the Developer’s side.
As often is the case, Chris and I got a little heated and even a little loud – we’re very passionate about our users and the user experience of our UI (User Interface). It didn’t take long before our lead Developer walked right up to the door and yelled “Manager Fight!” The whole room cracked up. Needless to say, I eventually came around to seeing the Development Team’s point and we met in the middle with a fantastic new idea that we never would have thought of without that conflict. Our Team knows us well enough to know that we’re quite close friends – you’ll often find us out on a lunch break GeoCaching together! Immediately following our debate, though somewhat heated, neither of us left with hard-feelings. At the end of the day, we’re looking out for our most precious resource – our customers: and I’m always up for a good debate about how to take better care of you! In the end, everyone wins.
Contact us today and see how serious we take customer service!
Chris Nelson | IT & Security
October 19th, 2009
Recently I viewed a demo of some new features that will be making their way into our product later this month. None of them were the sorts of big, splashy things that one would write a press release about. But I was impressed by all of the changes I saw–to our Media Library and CSV Import modules–because they improve usability and give our users even more flexibility than they are accustomed to.
None of these changes were particularly expensive or difficult to make. Considered separately, you’d say they were minor. But together, they make a high-functioning product even better. And that really embodies the Delivra philosophy of business. We’re not trying to grow by leaps and bounds, but by continuous improvement–listening to our customers and trying each day to serve them a little better than we did the day before. To use an analogy appropriate to this fall season of Major League Baseball playoffs, we’re not swinging for the fences, because home run hitters tend to strike out as often as they connect. If we were a baseball player, we’d be Ichiro–consistently hitting singles and doubles, and scoring for his team more often than many of his better-known contemporaries.
How about you? Are you trying to inject life into your email marketing program by swinging wildly, trying to hit a grand slam? Or maybe you’re just going through the motions, sending the same sort of newsletter every day/month/year, hoping for better results without making adjustments. In our experience, success comes from commitment to continuous improvement. Delivra’s tools help you test, audit, and report on your mailings so that you can see what does and doesn’t work, who is and isn’t engaging with your messages. But that information is only useful if you’re committed to acting on it, adjusting your strategy accordingly. Not sure how? Let us help.
Chris Broshears | Product Development
