the rules of (email) engagement...the rules of (email) engagement | page 2 | it cannot be stressed...
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| Page 1 |SOPHIA JACOBSON | SR. DELIVER ABILIT Y ANALYST, TECHNOLOGY SERVICES GROUP | S [email protected]
1 .877.9MERKLE | MERKLEINC.COM | © 2012 MERKLE INC.
THE RULES OF (EMAIL) ENGAGEMENT
RULE NUMBER 1: WEED OUT THE “INACTIVES”
Thought Leadership Series
THE RULES OF (EMAIL) ENGAGEMENT
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It cannot be stressed enough that recipient engagement is more important than ever for maintaining high inbox placement rates. Internet service providers (ISPs) are continuously trying to find ways to keep their customers safe from malicious email. Intuitively, we know that engagement has always been a consideration, but now we can demonstrate its impact on ROI. So how can you ensure your bottom line isn’t affected by poor recipient engagement?
According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), email still has the highest ROI of any direct marketing channel; in 2012, at $39.40 per dollar spent.* Thus, email marketers should identify the email addresses and campaigns that are causing them to fall short of their optimum ROI. This five-part engagement mini-series will help identify ways to boost ROI on email marketing initiatives while improving inbox placement rates.
Engagement is a metric used to determine which customers are interacting–opening and clicking–with your emails. ISPs, including Yahoo, know not only who is opening and clicking emails; they also know who is viewing emails, and deleting before and after reading, and using this information to determine engagement rates. The higher your engagement rate at ISPs, the more likely your emails will reach your customer’s inbox and, therefore, generate revenue. Gmail released a similar model for engagement rates in 2010 called Priority Inbox, which automatically identifies customers’ most important messages and prioritizes them accordingly: important messages appear at the top of the inbox and least important (unread) messages appear either at the bottom or in the spam folder.
1# Weeding Out Inactive Email AddressesOne of the most effective ways to boost your engagement rate, inbox placement rate, and ROI is by removing email addresses that have not shown activity—opens or clicks—in the past 12 months. In the past, marketers believed in a “batch and blast” approach, which consisted of sending to a large number of email addresses and expecting to get a higher ROI. Today, the “batch and blast” approach actually leads to higher bulking and lower ROI; the paradigm has changed toward sending to higher-quality lists. Marketers can no longer assume it is acceptable to send to an entire database and anticipate some portion of recipients will engage and become potential sources of revenue. On the contrary, marketers need to put engagement rules in place to automatically remove email addresses that do not show activity in 12 or more months, before more ISPs start to use this benchmark of engagement.
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*www.magillreport.com/Email-Remains-ROI-King-Net-Marketing-Set-to-Overtake-DM/
| Page 3 |SOPHIA JACOBSON | SR. DELIVER ABILIT Y ANALYST, TECHNOLOGY SERVICES GROUP | S [email protected]
1 .877.9MERKLE | MERKLEINC.COM | © 2012 MERKLE INC.
CASE STUDYIn early 2012, a client who rarely experienced ISP issues began to see issues with Gmail. The client started seeing Gmail-specific clickthrough rates drop to 0.6%, and over 95% spam folder placement. After extensive testing, we decided to separate the engaged recipients from the unengaged and only send to the engaged portion for several weeks. Using this approach, we were able to drive click-through rates to 7.09%, with 100% inbox placement, as shown in the following chart.
As noted above, by sending to a smaller, engaged set of recipients and improving inbox placement, this client was able to realize higher overall click-through volume at a significantly lower cost.
The next part of this engagement series will focus on re-engaging the 90% of Gmail recipients who were originally weeded out, to catch those who might have been dormant but still want to receive emails, while keeping costs low and ROI high.
Full List Engaged List Only
List Size 1MM 100K
Inbox Placement Percentage 5% 100%
Click Rate .6% 7.09%
Total Clicked 6K 7K
CPM* $0.60 $0.60
Cost $600 $60
Cost Per Click $0.100 $0.009
THE RULES OF (EMAIL) ENGAGEMENT
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About the Author
Sophia is Merkle’s deliverability services lead. In her role, Sophia is responsible for crafting best practices for deliverability and inbox placement across the entire spectrum of Merkle interactive clients. Sophia builds and maintains ISP relationships while consulting clients on industry best practices and laws. She is an active member of MAAWG and the ESPC.
About MerkleMerkle, a customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm, is the nation’s largest privately-held agency. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. By combining a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines, Merkle works with clients to design, execute and evaluate connected CRM programs. With more than 1,600 employees, Merkle is headquartered near Baltimore in Columbia, Maryland with additional offices in Boston; Chicago; Denver; Little Rock; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; San Francisco; Hagerstown, MD and Shanghai. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com.
Sophia Jacobson Sr. Deliverability Analyst, Technology Services [email protected]