A new study from marketing research firm Ipsos and the Email Sender and Provider Coalition provides a great insight into how consumers are viewing the email marketing landscape. Direct Magazine online has a good overview here, and you can read the original press release and executive summary here.

One of the more interesting statistics from the study is that 90 percent of email users would prefer to have a specific unsubscribe button on their inbox. This is backed up by the fact that 82 percent of email users say they trust the sender's unsubscribe option, and that they've used it to remove themselves from a list. I've been an advocate of the unsubscribe button for a while now. For a refresher on the benefits, you can read my posts here, and here.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Email Experience Council has come out with an interesting new report assessing the state of email metrics and bounce management. In a nutshell, the study reveals that senders vary widely in how they calculate key metrics such as open, click and delivery rates. The EEC says this lack of consistency hampers marketers' efforts to properly execute, measure and compare results across programs, providers or channels.

The report, “The State of Email Metrics & Bounce Management,” calls for a standardized set of metrics as well as common definitions and uniform practices, and says the next step is for industry groups, analysts and influencers to come together and establish them. You can read more about it in this article from DM News and this announcement from the EEC.

While I certainly advocate transparency of metrics, I would caution marketers not to go overboard trying to choose an email service provider based largely around its deliverability. I believe that most top-tier ESPs employ similar technology and have fairly consistent skills and services in areas like working with Internet service providers. In the quest for better comparative metrics, marketers shouldn’t forget that improved list-building tactics and more relevant content will go much further at improving deliverability than ferreting out the small differences in deliverability services between ESPs.

P.S. Silverpop makes all of its metrics calculations readily available for those customers that do want to dig into the specific calculations.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Contrary to concerns that slowing growth could indicate a declining interest in email, a new Forrester Research report concludes that email is still going strong and has merely steadied with maturity.

"Email Marketing Comes of Age," by analyst Shar VanBoskirk, reveals nearly universal penetration by online consumers and marketers, stable click rates and continued consumer engagement as marketers take on sophisticated, relevant tactics.

In fact, email is one of a marketer's most valuable channels, the report finds.

Email customers spend more online than their non-email counterparts, buy on impulse in response to email promotions and are more likely to tell others about the email promotions they have received. The report urges marketers to turn more email customers into email lovers by undertaking tactics tuned to each customer's specific behaviors. You can read more about Forrester's findings and its predictions for 2007 in this DM News article.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When asked about mobile marketing, many email marketers immediately jump to the idea of targeted outbound SMS messaging. And, if they think about it for a while, they also mention transactions and alerts (e.g., a notification that your plane's gate has changed while you're at the airport).

The more I learn about mobile marketing, the more I see it as a completely new and unique medium for marketers. Many of the old paradigms just don't apply. It's a bit like email marketers arguing over how different their medium is from direct mail. To get an idea of how differently mobile marketing can be from our traditional notions of marketing, take a look at the mobile site recently set up by Starbucks.

This simple application allows a user to enter a ZIP code and quickly displays a list of nearby Starbucks with each store's services (like Wifi). If the goal of marketing is to draw in attention and drive purchases, then this handy little application meets the definition and then some:

The mobile environment is the most intimate and potentially annoying kind of marketing ever invented. The brands that win are not likely to be the ones that steal your attention, but the ones that aid you in accomplishing your goals while you're on the go.

Disclaimer: The Starbucks application was created by mobile messaging and marketing applications provider Air2Web. I've been a board member of Air2Web for several years, and it has been a great opportunity to see the evolution of mobile applications and mobile marketing.

Posted by Bill Nussey at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)