Email Marketing RulesUnderstanding Email Open Rates
Posted on September 15, 2020
Marketing metrics are just numbers. Without the proper understanding and context, you can’t turn these numbers into the valuable insights you need to make better tactical and strategic decisions.
In this series of posts, we’ll look at a variety of marketing metrics, discussing how to measure each one, how to use each one, and how to benchmark your performance. In this post, we’re examining email open rates, which are easily the most misunderstood email marketing metric—by a long shot. We’ll explain:
- How Open Rates Are Measured
- How to Best to Use Open Rates
- What Is a Good Open Rate
For a detailed look at each of those issues…
>> Read the full post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
The Last Word on August 2020
Posted on September 9, 2020
A roundup of email marketing articles, posts, and tweets you might have missed last month…
Must-read articles, posts & reports
Email Superstar: Channel Seen As A Top Engagement Tool, Post COVID-19 (MediaPost)
Email Marketing Performance Has Skyrocketed. How Should Strategies Evolve in a Pandemic? (AdWeek)
Most Consumers Will Not Shop In Stores This Black Friday (MediaPost)
10 Incredible Women of Email (that you may not have heard about yet) (Knak)
Insightful & entertaining tweets
SMTP will be 40 years old in 2022! It’s time to start planning a big world party, right? #emailgeeks
— Jonathan Loriaux (@jloriaux) August 27, 2020
Tik Tok
YouTube
Podcast
Events
Webinars
Direct Mail… but I’d trade them all for an email list.
— davegerhardt (@davegerhardt) August 2, 2020
Spun up a bunch of new spamtraps over the weekend and I’m getting a 10% increase in trap traffic benefit. In just a single day (so far). Amazed.
— Al Iverson’s Spam Resource (@spamresource) August 10, 2020
False scarcity is lame. pic.twitter.com/x6xeHi9k98
— Kurt Elster 🛒 (@kurtinc) August 6, 2020
Noteworthy subject lines
Big Lots, 8/6 – Your Halloween Headquarters!
Office Depot, 8/8 – Back to school: Changing the way that we learn
Michaels, 8/6 – Get what you need for school—no matter where you learn.
Michaels, 8/2 – Aced it: Deals and DIYs to get you ready for any teaching environment
Target, 8/6 – Deals on school supplies 🖍️
Uncommon Goods, 8/16 – Grill it. Shake it. Chill it. Make it the best Labor Day ever.
Neiman Marcus, 8/31 – Match your mask to your dress
MoMA Design Store, 8/18 – New! Masks & Face Coverings
Petco, 8/29 – Easy ways to thank your ‘quaran-team’ buddy 🐶
Crate and Barrel, 8/22 – BYOB: Be your own barista.
Express, 8/29 – Staycation inspiration + FREE shipping and 50% off 3+ items
Banana Republic, 8/6 – RSVP: Backyard Bash
Williams Sonoma, 8/2 – How to set your summer table
Zales, 8/18 — 🚗 Second Stop on Our Summer Virtual Road Trip: Charleston!
Michael, 8/18 – Looking for a new DIY? 👀 Join the resin obsession!
The Home Depot, 8/14 – Design Your Garage Door with Clopay®
DICK’S Sporting Goods, 8/14 – Deals to Help You Stay Active 🎣 👟 ⛳
Bass Pro Shops, 8/14 – We’ve got everything you need for a great hunting season!
Eddie Bauer, 8/8 — 🏕️ Tonight’s The Night! Let’s Sleep Under The Stars
ModCloth, 8/26 – Did someone say FREE dresses!?
Everlane, 8/26 – “Comfort level = 100.”
Bonobos, 8/20 – New(!) & On Sale(!!): 30% Off New Fall Arrivals(!!!)
Victoria’s Secret, 8/6 – Own your confidence in our #1 bra collection
Crate and Barrel, 8/8 — $1000 for your thoughts.
Quiksilver, 8/16 – Plastic bottles look good on you
Moosejaw, 8/26 – Check out who inspires us: The Blackalachian
Eddie Bauer, 8/22 – ENDS TOMORROW! Get 40% Off When You Sign Up For Rewards Via Text
Trailer Life Magazine, 8/22 – Vote Now! 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards
West Elm, 8/30 – End tomorrow! Win a 6-month HBO Max subscription *AND* $500 from us
New posts on EmailMarketingRules.com
On-Demand Webinar: The Email Subscriber Lifecycle
On-Demand Webinar: The Hierarchy of Subscriber Needs
EmailTalk Podcast: The Impact of Coronavirus on Email Marketing with Chad White
On-Demand Webinar: The Questions to Ask Instead about Email Marketing ROI
On-Demand Webinar: Keep Optimizing Email Marketing Webinar
On-Demand Webinar: Choosing the Best Days to Send Email Campaigns This Holiday Season
On-Demand Webinar: The Most Critical Email Deliverability Questions
Posted on September 8, 2020
The most critical email deliverability questions are YOUR QUESTIONS, especially during this time when so many companies and email programs have been disrupted and are under so much pressure. To help you get the answers you need, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s Email Deliverability Services team got together to answer pre-submitted and live questions about a range of issues that fall under the umbrella of email deliverability.
During this attendee-driven 57-minute webinar, we answer questions about:
- The biggest deliverability challenges of 2020 so far
- The value of BIMI and how to take advantage of it
- How to get into Gmail’s Primary tab—and whether that’s a good idea
- How to safely send full-file transactional emails
- The ISPs that have been the most challengingly lately in terms of deliverability
- The pros and cons of double opt-in
- The value of Sender Scores
- Win-back campaign best practices
- And more
By the end of the webinar, you’ll have a better understanding of all of those issues, plus advice that’s grounded in the challenging times we’re experiencing right now.
>> Watch the on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Webbula: Roundup for Email Marketing Holiday Tips
Posted on September 2, 2020
The holiday season is just around the corner, so Webbula invited me and 10 other digital marketing experts to share their tips for how to prepare for what will surely be an unusually risk-filled holiday season.
My advice focuses on three areas:
- How the shape of the holiday season is likely to be very different this year, with retailers shifting email campaign volume earlier in the season to lock in sales before late December when risks rise—which we discuss in much more detail in our webinar about Choosing the Best Days to Send Email Campaigns This Holiday Season
- The need for much more contingency planning than usual due to the likelihood of a second wave of coronavirus and the impact that would have on store capacities, staffing levels, and delivery delays—which we discuss in more detail in our third quarter Holiday Marketing Quarterly
- And how businesses need to do a better job at curbside pickup and, more broadly, omnichannel integration—which our consultants rated as a Competitive Differentiator this year
Check our my 12-minute video, plus advice from Jeanne Jennings, Dela Quist, Jenna Tiffany, and the others. A lot of great and varied perspectives to help you think broadly about getting ready for the holiday season this year.
>> Read the full post on Webbula’s blog
Double Opt-In Best Practices
Posted on September 1, 2020
Double opt-in (DOI) permission practices are often seen as unnecessary and harmful to list growth. However, when used correctly, they can improve your email program’s results by protecting your sender reputation, which keeps you from having deliverability problems.
In this post, we answer key questions about double opt-in, including:
- How does a DOI process work?
- What are the advantages of DOI?
- What are the disadvantages of DOI?
- Where should I use a DOI process?
- How can I maximize DOI confirmations?
We also share how we used double opt-in best practices with the Oracle CX Marketing Consulting newsletter, which enjoys a 96% opt-in confirmation rate. As we discuss the best practices, we share screenshots of our subscription confirmation page, opt-in confirmation request email, and opt-in confirmation page so you can see exactly how we put them into action.
Of course, you’re also welcome to experience them yourself by signing up for our twice-monthly newsletter, which is full of advice and insights from our more than 500 digital marketing consultants.
>> Read the entire post on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
On-Demand Webinar: The Email Subscriber Lifecycle
Posted on August 25, 2020
To nourish and grow an email relationship, you need to cater to your subscribers’ needs and wants throughout the entire subscriber lifecycle. That means developing tactics to address the major subscriber moments from beginning to end.
During this free 44-minute on-demand webinar, I discuss:
- The six stages of the subscriber lifecycle, from when a visitor or customer signs up for your promotional emails through when they’re lost as a subscriber
- The pages, emails, and other elements that are a part of each stage of the subscriber lifecycle
- How to improve each lifecycle stage
By the end of the webinar, you’ll understand how to improve subscriber retention as well as increase subscriber lifetime value by optimizing each stage of the lifecycle.
>> Watch the on-demand webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
On-Demand Webinar: The Hierarchy of Subscriber Needs
Posted on August 18, 2020
The key to modern email marketing success is creating relevance for your subscribers. However, this cure-all is often discussed in vague, mystical terms within the narrow context of company-specific examples. Although relevance is indeed in the eye of the beholder, achieving it is both describable and measurable. The Hierarchy of Subscriber Needs is your roadmap for understanding the various components that create relevance and also measuring it.
During this 26-minute on-demand webinar, I discuss:
- Subscribers’ needs for respectful, functional, valuable, and remarkable email experiences
- The best ways that marketers can meet each of those needs
- How to measure how well you’re meeting each of those needs, including secondary success metrics that go beyond the primary ones
To learn all about how the Hierarchy of Subscriber Needs can help your business…
>> Watch the webinar on Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
EmailTalk Podcast: The Impact of Coronavirus on Email Marketing with Chad White
Posted on August 17, 2020
I join Taxi for Email Founder Elliot Ross on episode 2 of his new EmailTalk Podcast to discuss how the coronavirus has affected email behavior. But along the way, we discuss a wide range of other topics. In the podcast, I share:
- Two truths and lie about my book-writing career
- My email origin story of how I fell into the email marketing industry
- How email behaviors have changed during the pandemic, including changes in open patterns, email volume, email engagement, and unsubscribe rates
- How the pandemic has affected companies quite differently
- How the recovery coming out of the pandemic will be much more chaotic and individualistic compared to the fairly universal experience in mid-March
- Tips on how the mid-March COVID announcements could have been better
- Thoughts on how device usage now might affect your email design
- Tips on how to handle a lot of new consumer behaviors, such as first-time online buyers and curbside pickup
- How out-of-stocks are driving consumers to try new brands and new retailers, and how retailers should react
- My philosophy on what marketing’s key goal is
- How analytics can power your empathy
- The one thing about I would change about email marketing
To listen to our entire conversion…
>> Visit the EmailTalk.FM website
Webinar on Aug. 26: The Most Critical Email Deliverability Questions
Posted on August 12, 2020
The most critical email deliverability questions are YOUR QUESTIONS.
Join Oracle CX Marketing Consulting’s Email Deliverability Services team for this attendee-driven webinar as they answer your questions about any of the issues that fall under the umbrella of email deliverability. For example, they can answer your questions about inbox placement, sender reputation, authentication, privacy legislation, BIMI, seed lists, click bots, spam fingerprinting, email validation, Gmail tabs, permission practices, inactivity management, spam traps, domain reputation, or anything else.
Our experts, which average over 13 years of deliverability experience each, will take questions throughout the webinar. However, to get your question at the top of our list, please email Daniel.deneweth@oracle.com prior to the live webinar.
The Most Critical Email Deliverability Questions
Date: Wed., Aug. 26, 2020
Time: 1pm ET/10am PT
Duration: 1 hour
Your Presenters:
Daniel Deneweth, Head of Email Deliverability Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Heather Goff, Director of Deliverability Strategy, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Clea Moore, Director of Deliverability Strategy for Email Deliverability Services, Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Brian Sullivan, Strategic Director of Email Deliverability Services at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting
Chad S. White, Head of Research at Oracle CX Marketing Consulting and author of Email Marketing Rules
>> Register for this free webinar
On-Demand Webinar: The Questions to Ask Instead about Email Marketing ROI
Posted on August 11, 2020
Not achieving your email marketing goals is frustrating, but achieving your goals and then not achieving success is devastating. This happens when marketers and executives ask the wrong questions. When that happens, the answer almost doesn’t matter, because it’s likely to cause you to put the wrong strategies in place regardless. A solid email marketing strategy starts by asking the right questions.
In this series of free on-demand webinars, we’re discussing a number of common email marketing questions that brands ask themselves, and then posing some better questions that brands should ask instead. In our earlier webinars, we discussed email performance measurement and email frequency & list building. In this 19-minute webinar, we look at common questions about email marketing ROI, including…
- How can we reduce our email marketing costs?
- How much does it cost?
- How can we increase our email marketing ROI?
In each case, we’ll explain why those questions aren’t likely to help you achieve the email marketing success that you want, and suggest one or more questions that are better. Along the way, we share advice from some of our more than 500 digital marketing consultants, as well as some real-world experiences from our clients.
To watch the free on-demand webinar…
>> Visit Oracle’s Modern Marketing Blog
Welcome! Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the best practices of this complex, often misunderstood channel as you craft the best executions for your brand. Every week, we’ll explore strategies and tactics, discuss tips and inspiration, and dig into industry news and trends.
Chad S. White
Head of Research
Oracle Digital Experience Agency
Author of Email Marketing Rules and nearly 4,000 articles about digital and email marketing
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