Email Marketing to Schools

Elite Email

As a leader in permission-based email marketing, we at Elite Email are disgusted by the actions of the Gingrich campaign…

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

Newt Gingrich, the defeated Republican presidential candidate, is selling his donor email marketing mailing list in an effort to dig the campaign out of a $4 million debt. This is a complete breach of trust with his supporters who are now going to receive spam from any illegitimate organization that decides to purchase the data. The unsolicited email will be of the worst kind because not only is the Gingrich campaign selling the actual email address, but it is coupled with other personal information as well, according to the investigation by Elite Email. This action completely violates email marketing best practices and ethics, which ultimately damages the reputation of Newt Gingrich and the Republican Party as a whole.

“As a leader in permission-based email marketing, we at Elite Email are disappointed by the actions of the Gingrich campaign,” said Robert Burko, CEO of Elite Email. “We proudly teach all of our customers how to properly build an opt-in mailing list and safeguard their customers privacy. To see someone who was trying to become President completely dismiss the importance of privacy is a very sad thing that email marketers everywhere should shake their heads at.”

The Newt 2012 privacy policy clearly states, “We are committed to protecting your privacy online.” The policy also goes on to say, “We may obtain information about you from outside sources and add it to or combine it with the information we collect.” This means that even if a donor did not supply their email address, the Gingrich campaign can use other personal information and perform an action known as “email appending” to obtain an email address and piece together a complete record about the donor that they can ultimately sell. This practice is heavily frowned upon by all email marketing service providers and no legitimate email marketers engage in such an action.

Organizations all around the world use email marketing software to send out email newsletters and announcements as the Newt 2012 campaign had claimed it would be doing. But, all of those organizations work hard to build a permission-based list of people who explicitly asked to receive their email marketing campaigns. They follow email marketing best practices and treat the private information of their customers with the care, security and sensitivity it deserves.

The Newt 2012 data is being sold through the data brokerage firm TMA Direct. The pricing is setup so that the price of the data is higher for those donors who gave larger amounts of money, with smaller donors having a lower price tag. With this email marketing data now readily available, donors to the Newt 2012 campaign should be on high alert for increased spam and be vary wary of any organizations claiming a linkage to the campaign when sending an email.

With increased spam as a result of the actions of the Gingrich campaign, marketers should use caution when using their email marketing software to send out campaigns by avoiding words that might appear in this “Newt Spam” so that their legitimate emails do not get incorrectly flagged as spam.

About Elite Email

Elite Email is a leading North American email marketing service provider (ESP) that has been helping customers achieve greater email marketing results for almost 10 years. The Elite Email cloud-based (software-as-a-service) platform allows organizations of all sizes to build and grow their mailing list, create eye-catching emails, and track results with detailed reports and analytics. All services are backed by Elite Email’s outstanding support and customer care.

Elite Email has been featured on TV, radio and print media and is a member of the Email Experience Council, eMarketing Association, Better Business Bureau, Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Vaughan Chamber of Commerce and Toronto Board of Trade. Elite Email is the only Canadian company listed by the Utah and Michigan Child Protection Agency as a compliant sender. Elite Email recently won the Business of the Year award at the Toronto Board of Trade Business Excellence Awards.

For more information visit: http://www.eliteemail.com

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/email-marketing/newt-gingrich/prweb9512721.htm

SAN ANTONIO, TX–(Marketwire – May 15, 2012) –  Harte-Hanks (NYSE: HHS), a global insight-driven multichannel direct and digital marketing company, announced today the release of its comprehensive study of email marketing and messaging metrics for 2011. The study is for clients in multiple industry verticals using the company’s Postfuture^® email platform with — for the first time — delivery data tied to specific Internet Service Provider (ISP) domains, as well as data on devices used for email viewing defined by vertical market. Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index™ reports and examines metrics for deliverability, open rates, click-through rates, opt-out rates and subject line characteristics both overall and for specific verticals in the U.S. marketplace, including: Automotive; Entertainment; Financial Services; Pharmaceutical; Retail; Technology; and Consumer Packaged Goods. 

“Email communication is being utilized more strategically reflecting a higher level of sophistication in their execution,” said Jeannine Falcone, managing director, The Agency Inside^® Harte-Hanks. “New unique open-data-by-email domains shed light on how ISPs filter and deliver email. Additionally, new device data tells us how recipients are viewing their email, providing marketers with insights into how email is performing and how it might best be rendered.”

“This Index,” Falcone said, “provides brands with benchmarks to compare their own experiences against aggregated statistics within their industry category and among businesses overall. Email marketing continues to be an important component of the multichannel engagement strategy, and insights gleaned from the Index help to contribute to the success of any multichannel strategy.”

For 2011, compared to 2010, Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index found that:

• Overall delivery rates across all industry sectors averaged 94.2 percent, one percentage point lower than 2010 across all industries.
• Open rates came in at 17.4 percent, slightly surpassing the overall 2010 rate of 16.6 percent.
• Click rates shot up to 5.8 percent, after 2010 hovering at 2.7 percent.
• Unsubscribe rates continued to decline from 0.32 percent in 2009 to 0.16 percent in 2010 and now 0.11 percent, which is attributed, according to Harte-Hanks, to increased use of frequency controls, targeted content and suppression of non-responders; and,
• Bounce rates marked a small increase from 4.9 percent in 2010, to 5.8 percent for 2011.

Additionally, for the first time, the 2011 Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index reported delivery and open rates for email sent to AOL, ATT, BellSouth, Comcast, Gmail, Hotmail, MSN, SBCGlobal, Verizon, Yahoo! and “All Others” email addresses, providing insights by vertical market for these domains. Additionally, email viewing by device and vertical market also was reported, discerning Android, Apple Mobile, “Other Mobile” and Computer (PC/Mac) for email viewing across the seven industry categories.

For insight into rationale for the performance in various verticals, including the domain and device metrics, view the entire report at http://www.harte-hanks.com/insights/pfindex.

[Editor's Note: Individual charts and graphs from this study are available for editorial use, with credit given to "Source: Harte-Hanks Postfuture Index™ Email Response Metrics 2011 Report, Released Spring 2012." Contact Morayea Pindziak to arrange for prompt delivery.]

About Harte-Hanks
Harte-Hanks, Inc.^® is a worldwide, direct and targeted marketing company that provides direct marketing services and shopper advertising opportunities to local, regional, national and international consumer and business-to-business marketers. Visit the Harte-Hanks Website at http://www.harte-hanks.com or call (800) 456-9748.

Postfuture brings the power of effective email messaging tools and a comprehensive hosted messaging platform backed by decades of experience in strategic relationship marketing from The Agency Inside Harte-Hanks — so marketers have the power and support brands need to develop a strong multichannel marketing strategy, build lasting customer relationships, and grow business.

This document may contain trademarks that are owned or licensed by Harte-Hanks, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including, without limitation, Harte-Hanks^®, The Agency Inside, Postfuture^® and other names and marks. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Article source: http://www.retail-digital.com/press_releases/e-commerce/harte-hanks-announces-email-key-performance-metrics-for-2011-tracking-seven-key-industries

May 16, 2012 · by Hal Licino

Ever since social media blew up big, experts have sworn that Twitter will single-handedly slay email marketing as we know it. Twitter has been framed as the hip kid in town, and email marketing, long an invaluable tool for online sellers, has been painted the stodgy, cranky old man who doesn’t like change.

Now that the dust has settled a bit, some inexperienced online sellers do believe that Twitter has superseded email marketing, when in reality the two marketing tools complement each other perfectly. Here’s how Twitter and email marketing stack up against each other.

Aesthetics – An email newsletter can be designed to match any brand identity and style, while in Twitter you’re limited to being able to change the background. Customers react more positively to a visual appeal which is consistent across platforms, and email allows customization that is impossible in Twitter. Advantage: Email.

Brevity – Twitter has the unmistakable advantage here, as if a marketer can master the art of condensing a promotional pitch into a scant 140 characters then the online world is their oyster. There is nothing like Twitter to appeal to a customer quickly by hitting them swiftly and powerfully with a strong driving message. Advantage: Twitter.

Checkout – Studies have shown that most consumers are 50% more likely to purchase from a company which has been emailing them over one that they’re following on Twitter. Advantage: Email.

Frequency – You can Tweet with a frequency that would get the CAN-SPAM police knocking down your door, while email needs to be meticulously issued to not violate tolerance thresholds. Advantage: Twitter.

Personalization – Email can be segmented to appeal to specific categories within your customer base while Twitter is essentially a one to all uncustomizable broadcast. This factor makes Twitter a far blunter tool for surgically catering to the specific needs and preferences of particular customer groups. Advantage: Email

Privacy – An email is a communication which is directly intended for a single individual while Twitter is a completely public announcement which can seem more like a broadly based advertisement. Emails are seen by your customers as a confidential missive in contrast to Twitter’s “shouting from the rooftops.” Advantage: Email.

Regulations – While every day brings more restrictive governmental legislation around the world covering what email marketers can and cannot do, Twitter is a wide open and effectively unregulated marketplace. You can legitimately approach customers on Twitter fully within the realm of netiquette and legality in ways that would get you labeled as a spammer if you did that in email. Advantage: Twitter.

Transparency – No email subscriber knows whether they are one of a hundred or a million on your list, but Twitter follower lists are visible to all. It is much easier for a small company to portray the illusion of a major international brand through email newsletters than on Twitter where it is easy to determine that the following numbers in the dozens. Advantage: Email.

Uniformity – Twitter wins this one as no matter how you access the service and what desktop, laptop, or mobile device you use, the interface is always the same. When you’re composing email newsletters you have to deal with aspects of word processing, design, email clients, and other factors that lack the built-in elegance of a simple, straightforward tweet. Advantage: Twitter.

Both Twitter and email marketing have their relative and fully complementary strengths. Not every customer suffers from ADHD and prefers to receive all their brand information in soundbites, as there are countless instances where 140 characters simply do not suffice to get the message across properly.

This era of online marketing is noted for substantially rewarding a coherent, studied, and comprehensive approach to the consumer via all of the channels available. In other words, use Twitter to spark customer interest, but use your in-depth newsletter content to make that sale.

Category: The Email Detail |
Tags: twitter, social media, Email

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Article source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/blogs/post/961-Will-Twitter-supersede-email-marketing-in-the-near-future-

Despite the rapid growth of social media as a popular communications channel, emails are still an effective way for businesses to connect with and distribute information to consumers. In the U.S., nearly 92% of online adults use the Internet to read and send emails. And with the growing number of smartphones in the U.S., many consumers have constant access to email. In fact, almost 90 million Americans read emails on a mobile device.

So to get a local expert’s point-of-view, we recently sat down with Ashley Ayan, Online Marketing Manager at ReachLocal, to discuss email best practices and how businesses should use email to connect with customers. She describes key elements and strategies for developing an email marketing campaign, from beginning to end.

Q: What is the first thing a business should consider when developing an email campaign?

A business should always define why they want to create an email campaign. If the answer is simply self-promotion, chances are it won’t be successful in today’s environment. People’s inboxes are often cluttered with emails, and if yours doesn’t offer something they want, then why should they read it? You need to provide your subscribers valuable info. A recent presentation by Marketing Sherpa provided this great example: anybody can sell water, but people today want much more than just plain water. They want bubbles and flavors. They want something different. You have to give them something they can’t get from anyone else. It’s the same with email marketing. Other business might talk about the same subjects as you, but you need to provide content uniquely targeted at your audience. So in addition to the goals you will set for your email marketing campaign, you also want to focus your strategy on building a relationship with your subscribers and providing them with valuable information.

Q: How can a business build an audience?

There are many different ways to build audience. If the business has a physical store, they can ask people to sign up in the store. They can also identify their best and most satisfied customers to receive emails. If they have a high-traffic website, they can advertise their email subscription for newsletters, deals, or offers on the pages that have the most visibility.

If a business does not have a physical store, or wants to reach a larger audience, they may need to partner with stronger organizations and showcase their business when developing a new audience. They can then build an opt-in through an email marketing service provider and begin to build a subscription list. For example, a lawn care provider might ask to promote their business in a homeowner association’s newsletter to tap into that existing audience. Those subscribers see the lawn care service’s announcement or advertisement and click for more information. When the consumer visits the lawn care website they would see a call to action asking them to sign up to receive emails with news, tips, and special offers. This is a great way to start building your list from scratch.

It may be obvious, but when using this strategy for audience building, it is important to partner with companies who share the same values as your company and that are relevant to your business. You’re not just trying to collect a list of names; that’s why you certainly don’t want to go and buy a list. That’s not your goal. Your goal is to identify people who want the kind of information you’re providing or would like to build a relationship with you, because these are more likely to become a customer of your business. It doesn’t matter if you have 1,000 people in your list if they are not engaging with you. If you have 100 subscribers who are heavily involved with your business or your content, those 100 are far more valuable. So don’t worry about the quantity, worry more about the quality of your list.

Q: What type of content works best in emails?

What emails include – video, images, special content – depends completely on the audience. And for local businesses, nobody knows their audience better than the business owner. But because every audience’s wants and interests are different, you should always test to see what works best for your subscribers and what the audience responds to. And your audience changes over time, so don’t test once and think you’ve got the answers. Keep testing to see if preferences change, and adjust the content in the emails to match. Your email reflects the personality of your brand – do you want to be the brand that listens and provides a good conversation or just the one who talks without paying attention to anything your audience says?

Another very important thing to consider and monitor is how many of your consumers are accessing your email through a smartphone. Some forms of email content, like large images, may take longer to load on a mobile device. So, for those who are checking email on the go, they might not have the patience to wait for that. This doesn’t mean you can’t have images – images are a great way to attract customers and add interest to emails. Just make sure you optimize your emails so that they are mobile friendly. And, if you are doing mobile-friendly emails, make sure that your website is mobile-friendly also. For example, I once worked on a project that utilized QR codes in emails. QR codes are very accessible from smartphones. But if a QR code directs smartphone readers to a website that is not mobile-friendly, your efforts may be wasted.

Q: How can a business determine if their email marketing is successful?

Regardless of how great the content of your emails is, you’re going to lose some of your audience over time. This is just a natural cycle in email marketing. That’s why tracking and measuring email performance is important. Different email marketing platforms offer different types of email analytics, so make sure to consider the capability to track your emails when you choose a service provider. Ultimately, an email is successful if it achieves your goal, which is why identifying that goal up front is critical. Generating revenue, attracting more people to your subscription list, driving more people into your store, increasing positive reviews online – whatever your goal is, you should define up front what value you want to give your customers and what you want them to do in return, and then find ways to measure this.

When you do look at tactical metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe numbers, remember that your audience, your market, and your business are all unique. So there’s no standard you should compare yourself to other than yourself. As a business owner, you always want to improve upon your own metrics. So, make sure to regularly benchmark your results, and every time you make a change to a component of your email strategy, check your analytics to see if it hurt or improved performance.

Q: What kind of follow-up should a business do after they start sending emails?

First, it’s important to understand your responsibility to comply with CAN-SPAM law. For example, if someone unsubscribes from your list after receiving your email marketing, you can’t continue sending email marketing to them. To make this process manageable, select an email marketing platform that will help you manage subscriptions to remain compliant with the law.

It’s also important to regularly ask your current subscribers what content they are interested in so you can keep your messages highly relevant to them. For example, try a survey so you can get feedback directly from your audience.

 Q: Any last tips or suggestions?

For a successful email marketing program, it’s important to find the right email marketing service provider and make sure you have the time and resources to manage it. Make time up front to understand your audience, and regularly adjust your messaging based on what they want from you. Emails are no longer a source of one-way communication, so focus your strategy on building relationships rather than using the “spray and pray” mentality of blasting out a message and hoping people respond positively. Today, people want targeted, tailored messaging, so build a program that allows you to provide that.

Ashley Ayan is the Online Marketing Manager at ReachLocal. She has a background in IT, programming, SEO, website development, and online marketing.

This article originally appeared on ReachLocal Blog: Online Marketing to Reach Local Customers and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.

Article source: http://www.business2community.com/expert-interviews/ask-the-expert-email-marketing-best-practices-0179732

Marketers must adapt email messages to ‘stay relevant’

Wednesday 16th May 2012

The meteoric rise of smartphones throughout the world has made B2B email marketing even more challenging for firms.

They have to format messages in a different way for some people on business lists that use their mobile phones to pick up emails.

As well as this, marketers need to adapt the way in which they write for different mediums or be left behind in the quickly moving digital world.

According to Return Path’s survey entitled Email in Motion: Mobile is Leading the Email Revolution, the number of online messages read on mobile devices rose 82.4 per cent in the 12 months from March 2011.

Community manager at GetResponse Email Marketing Jim Ducharne, writing in Media Post, said with people’s inboxes now on the move, it has become ever more important when you send email content.

“Marketers must now adapt their methods and messages to stay relevant, or be left behind by the mobile consumer,” he continued.

Read our feature on the relevancy of email marketing to learn more

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www.StrongMail.com

Companies that rely on the quality and strategy of their emails simply see better results than those bombarding their readers with quantity. As a result, they spend less time chasing leads and building customer loyalty.

Redwood City, CA (PRWEB) May 16, 2012

As email marketing strategies have evolved, there is one technique that stands out for driving unparalleled results: lifecycle email marketing. StrongMail, a leading provider of email marketing and social media marketing solutions, recently performed a survey on the subject of lifecycle email marketing. The results demonstrate that timing truly is everything – especially when it comes to email marketing.

Lifecycle emails are precisely timed to reach potential customers at opportune moments. StrongMail’s experts have always known that lifecycle email marketing outperforms traditional batch email marketing because the extra effort taken to craft the right message and deliver it at the right time increases the likelihood of viewers responding to it. The company has been at the forefront of enabling marketers to harness the power of this method for fostering deeper loyalty with existing ones.

Last year, StrongMail surveyed more than 1,000 business leaders and came up with some convincing numbers that support lifecycle marketing’s benefits. Of the respondents who have already made the switch to lifecycle email marketing:

•     67 percent reported increased subscriber engagement
•     55 percent saw an increase in open and click-through rates

The benefits of leveraging lifecycle marketing are real. One of StrongMail’s customers, Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), experienced an impressive 16 percent increase in revenue by transitioning from traditional to right-time, lifecycle marketing.

“These numbers make sense to us, of course,” said Kara Trivunovic, vice president of agency services, StrongMail. “As with so many other aspects of marketing, timing is one of the most important elements for success and that is no less true when it comes to email marketing. Companies that rely on the quality and strategy of their emails simply see better results than those bombarding their readers with quantity. As a result, they spend less time chasing leads and building customer loyalty.”

To learn more about the statistics uncovered by the survey, view the full results by reading the post “Lifecycle Email Marketing vs. Traditional Email Marketing.”

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ABOUT STRONGMAIL SYSTEMS, INC.

Every day, StrongMail is empowering leading brands to engage and grow their customer base through email marketing and social media. From the world’s largest enterprises to the hottest daily deal sites, StrongMail is helping smart marketers boost the performance of their programs with cutting-edge lifecycle email marketing capabilities and the ability to deliver millions of highly personalized messages in minutes. Our products and services provide end-to-end solutions for such notable brands as IHG, McAfee, Viacom and T. Rowe Price. Learn more at http://www.strongmail.com.

To schedule a free demo, call (800) 971-0380 or contact us via the following link: http://www.strongmail.com/company/contact-us/.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9511390.htm

        --  Overall delivery rates across all industry sectors averaged 94.2
            percent, one percentage point lower than 2010 across all industries.
        --  Open rates came in at 17.4 percent, slightly surpassing the overall
            2010 rate of 16.6 percent.
        --  Click rates shot up to 5.8 percent, after 2010 hovering at 2.7
            percent.
        --  Unsubscribe rates continued to decline from 0.32 percent in 2009 to
            0.16 percent in 2010 and now 0.11 percent, which is attributed,
            according to Harte-Hanks, to increased use of frequency controls,
            targeted content and suppression of non-responders; and,
        --  Bounce rates marked a small increase from 4.9 percent in 2010, to 5.8
            percent for 2011.

        Media Contacts:
        Harte-Hanks Postfuture
        Morayea Pindziak
        (215) 944-9692
        Email Contact

http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=74A7CE722E019E2C

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/harte-hanks-announces-email-key-performance-metrics-for-2011-tracking-seven-key-industries-2012-05-15?reflink=MW_news_stmp

One of Seth Godin’s well-known quotes is that “selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t.”

Although relatively old, this adage remains explicitly true for most, if not all, forms of digital marketing–the most pertinently obvious being that of email.

With the first email arguably being sent some forty years ago, the channel has evolved through various forms, and recently, there’s been a great deal of debate around the concept that email is dead.

I firmly believe that it isn’t; it’s merely changing into something new–the most simplistic way of describing the transition within the channel being that it’s shifting as a medium used by consumers from an informal (personal, social) communication means, to a more formal (practical, corporate) state.

The evidence certainly exists to support this, with consumer research consistently demonstrating that email continually leads to the pack, whether it’s for marketing communications, direct sales information or even customer service.

This is something I see a great deal within Econsultancy’s own research. For example, our How We Shop report found that consumer respondents repeatedly indicated a preference to receiving commercial messaging via email, often twice as much more than other channels, across multiple scenarios.

As a result, the days of the mass-marketing, spray-and-pray approach to email seem to be numbered. Marketers are wising up to the fact that if done properly, the returns can be enormous: 84% of companies currently attribute up to nearly a third of sales (30%) to the channel, and over two-thirds of companies (70%) rate email marketing as ‘excellent’ (23%) or ‘good’ (47%) in terms of return on investment. (Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census).

Approximately what proportion of your total sales can you attribute to the email marketing channel? (Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Census 2012)

The common misconception seems to still exist that because email is seemingly so cheap, minimal investment of time and resources is needed to drive high returns. This is simply not true.

The basic technical format of email may not have changed much over the past few decades, but the channel as a marketing concept has become increasingly complex. Commercial emails are no longer concerned with just pushing advertising towards users.

Good marketing emails have relevance at their core and can only be successful as a marketing channel if they contain personalised, relevant and targeted messaging. Nearly half of consumers feel that irrelevant information devalues emails they receive (Econsultancy’s How We Shop report) and it’s becoming increasingly important to have a structured approach to email marketing as part of a wider strategy.

As with most aspects of marketing, it’s often a good idea to take stock of the activities you’re doing, and email is no different. Ensuring the fundamental basics are covered is important, as they are core to seeing success, but fully recognising their implementation can (somewhat ironically) be extremely difficult.

As part of an email best practice health check, I’ve formed the ASSESSMENT approach, where keeping this acronym front of mind can help sharpen your email planning and execution:

A – Assessment

S - Strategy

S – Structure

E – Engagement

S – Systems

S – Sanctions

M – Metrics

E – Evaluation

N – Newness

T – Testing

As a simplified breakdown:

Assessment

As suggested, you need to assess your existing email activity, if you’re carrying any out–or the current circumstances if you’re looking to start. This can come in multiple formats, depending on the context of your business, the situational circumstances of email, the target audience and more, but at the core of this, you need to consider your overall objectives. To make matters more complex, these should ideally be at a channel level, wider marketing level and business level, considering both long and short-term goals. It’s quite tough, but once you know where you stand, this will help you form a decent strategy.

Strategy

This is the practical planning stage for email, which uses the information analysed during the initial assessment. The two are tied closely together, but with the difference that creating a strategy is the practical approach that will be taken. One of the key factors to keep in mind is how email will work in conjunction with any other marcomms activity.

Structure

Sitting within a strategy, you need to consider the structured approach you’ll take for email. Who will be responsible? Will it be automated? How will you segment audience types? Creating a solid framework of specific action points on the basis of a wider strategy will help inform this.