Email open and click rates – are they rising?

September 11, 2012

(download full-sized infographic made by B2BMarketing.net)

Interestingly, the answer is yes.  And no.  According to a recent study done by Experian Cheetahmail (download the white paper) shows that open rates are up but click rates are down a little bit in the 2nd quarter of 2012. (As you can see by the infographic above, different studies reveal slightly different numbers but the interesting and important thing to notice is that they’re pretty darned close.)

According to the study, the total open rate for Q2 2012 was 21.9%, an improvement from the previous year, which was at 21.6%. Similarly, Q2 2012’s unique open rate of 15.2% was up from a year earlier (14.8%), but down from the previous quarter’s 15.5%.

A June report from Epsilon found the benchmark email open rate for Q1 to be 26.2%, up on quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year bases.

Most of the other metrics tracked by Experian Marketing Services saw year-over-year declines in Q2, yet many saw less pronounced decreases when measured on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

For example, Q2 2012’s click-to-open rate of 15.4% was a significant drop from 18.2% a year earlier, but represented a smaller decline when compared to Q1’s 16.3% rate. Q2’s unique click rate of 2.5% was down from 2.7% in Q1 and 2.8% in Q2 2011.

Other Interesting Findings:

• The overall transaction rate dropped slightly from the previous quarter and previous year.
• The average revenue per email in Q2 was $0.12.
• Average order declined to $156.37 from $159.93 in Q1 and $160.27 in Q2 2011.
• The bounce rate dropped to 2.6%.
• The unsubscribe rate also fell, to 0.15% in Q2. The Q1 rate was 0.16%, while the Q2 2011 rate was 0.2%.
• 55% of brands had statistically significant year-over-year increases in open rates.

Going back to the infographic — look at how the research tells us we can improve our own open and click thru rates:

• A better subject line will increase opens by 40%
• Personalizing the email will increase opens by 32%
• If the subject matter is on target, you can increase opens by a whopping 55%
• Sending your email from 10 am – 1 pm in the middle of the week (Tuesday is the #1 day) also will increase your odds of having that email opened

If you want to learn even more about smart email marketing, check out the brand new book by Jason Falls and DJ Waldow called The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing*

Related articles

• Email Campaigns – How to Increase Open Rate and Click-Throughs
• Email, Digital Marketing’s “Old Gray Mare,” Still Competitive In Performance And Cost
• Email Marketing Benchmarks: How Do You Stack Up?

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Content that your audience loves

September 8, 2012

I saw this on Scott Monty’s Facebook status…and loved it.  I couldn’t track down the creator but if I do, I’ll update the post.

Just wanted to give you something to chew on over the weekend.

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The most important job any business owner has

September 6, 2012

You know…sometimes we make things so much more complicated than they need to be.  Do you want to own or work for a company with longevity, a strong reputation and customers who are your best advertising?

Then follow this advice from The Little Blue Book of Advertising.  But I warn you…the simplicity of the advice is also what makes it so stinking difficult.

“Taking care of your brand (building it, managing it, protecting it, and yes, if necessary, reviving it) is the single most important job you’ve got. Whether you’re the president of the company, the EVP of marketing, or the newest employee in the advertising agency’s design department.

Your brand will last longer than any of your jobs. It’s even likely to last longer than your company. So taking care of your brand is also a smart career move–if you take care of your brand, it’ll take care of you. No one ever made the cover of Forbes magazine by getting a raise. But the covers and pages of the business press are filled with people who championed a great brand.

What’s the easiest way to take care of your brand? Take care of your customer. Know who she is. What he wants. How she uses–and thinks about–your product, service, brand.

It’s that simple. And that hard.”

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Facebook fun can also equal profits

September 4, 2012

It seems like every business is rushing to build a Facebook Page.  But once they get it built — they’re not too sure what to do with it.

1. Many just ignore it, publishing once a week or less
2. Some use it as a sales channel — pushing out deals and wondering why people are ignoring them
3. Others share the same links that they share on Twitter

But very few organizations actually have a good time on their page.  They don’t trigger conversations with their fans and they sure don’t turn their page over to their customers. But the folks at PostCardMania.com decided to have some fun with their fans.

Early this year, they were trying to come up with some ways to get more of their customers to like their Facebook page.   Their CMO was out doing some shopping (every great idea is not born in a brainstorming session!) and spotted those wax lips and wax mustaches that they sell in the candy section. She bought some and took them back to the office.

She was able to convince her CEO that it would be fun to send the lips and mustaches out to a list of customers who had not placed an order within a year as part of a Valentine’s Day effort.  In the package was the request that they take a picture of themselves wearing the lips or mustache and post it on the PostCardMania Facebook page wall.  Everyone who posted a photo would also get a free book written by the CEO.

500 packages were sent out. They increased their likes by about 50 people and had 20 or so clients add their photos to the wall. They also connected with their customers in a very personal, memorable way that generated a lot of goodwill.

On top of that — within 4-5 days of receiving the package — that list of customers placed over $120,000 worth of orders.

Here’s the takeaways for us in this little case study:

• They never mentioned postcard or direct mail in their communication
• They didn’t put together a long list of rules about what kinds of photos could be posted or who had to be in the photo, etc. They just opened the doors
• There was no coupon, QR code or any sort of offer in the package

This is a great example of creating a love affair with your customer.  PostCardMania simply reached out with something fun and invited their customers to take part.  There was no hype, spin or sell.  They just were having some fun and voila — they sold $120K worth of stuff.

Delight your audience and watch what happens.  I dare you.

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Rules of the Hunt – do you know what they are?

September 3, 2012

There’s a new book called Rules of the Hunt* that is unlike many of the business books on the shelf today.  No witty parables, no acronyms for an overarching belief, in fact it’s absolutely void of anything trendy or theoretical. Instead, this book is just down to earth and friendly advice like you might expect from a trusted mentor.

Did you ever have that one teacher, uncle or boss who you could just sit and listen to for hours?  That’s how I felt about this book — like I was learning from someone I could trust.

The author, Michael Dalton Johnson, shares a lifetime of learning and earning. Along with his practical business insights and observations, Johnson shares some powerful leadership rules that I suspect you’ll use more than once.

I had the chance to ask the author the same questions I enjoy asking all the authors and here’s what he had to say:

If you had to describe the content of your book in a single sentence (no run ons) what would it be?

An old dog’s advice to improve one’s business game.

What one book that you’ve read do you wish you could claim as your own?

There really are none.

In your opinion, what is the one trait that all uber successful business people possess?

I think they all share a real love of the game. There is an abiding excitement and sense of adventure that comes with business success. I doubt you would ever hear one say, “I hate what I do.”

What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it?

By far the biggest mistake I’ve made was selling a business prematurely. Back in the nineties, about a year before the Internet boom, I was a partner in a small technical publishing and marketing firm. The champagne corks were popping when we sold it for several million dollars.

About a year later, when the Internet gold rush was in full swing, a like sized competitor sold their business to a fortune 1000 company for 70 million.

The lesson, of course, is to not sell a soon to be appreciating asset. We could have probably seen the Internet investment frenzy coming had we bothered to get quality research on business and investment trends. We never even thought of it.

Why did you have to write this book? What truth or insight was missing from the human consciousness — that you’ve now answered?

My motive was not as lofty as adding to the human consciousness. I have witnessed, and continue to witness, business people making easily avoidable errors. I see many that are doing just so-so and others missing big opportunities, losing money and destroying their health. I wrote this book to give them small advantages to play a better and more rewarding business game.

After someone is done reading your book — what do you hope they do as a result?

I would hope they reflect for a moment on the author’s soaring genius and then start enthusiastically recommending the book to friends, family and strangers at Starbuck’s.

Seriously, I hope the reader will simply remember and use these rules.

 

Note: If you purchase the book on Amazon (see the * affiliate link above or click here) and then go to the Rules of the Hunt website (click here) you can get a bunch of extras from other authors like Zig Ziglar, Jeffrey Gitomer,  and Bob Bly.

 

 

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Marketing tip #93 How to make the most of a trade show

August 28, 2012

It seem intuitive to us that if we’re heading to a trade show as an exhibitor we should be thoughtful about how to maximize that time and dollar investment. Yet somehow, when we’re attending a show or conference as an attendee, we don’t seem to give it the same consideration.

I suppose many people make the assumption that if you go to a conference and learn something – it’s time and money well spent. That’s certainly a good start, but if you’re smart about it, you can get so much more out of your trip.

Location, location, location: Assuming the trade show is not in your home town – take advantage of the change of venue. Is there a prospect you’ve been romancing from a distance that happens to be located within a reasonable distance from the event location? If so, fly in a day early or fly out late and schedule a face to face.

Create a hit list: Usually the conference will publish a list of attendees ahead of time, to entice others to join in. If they don’t publish a list – do a Twitter search to see who is talking about the event. Once you’ve seen the list or at least a partial list – identify three to five people you absolutely want to meet and connect with.

Seek them out (not in a creepy stalker way) and be ready to engage them in a conversation. Your goal – to get to know them well enough that you can reach out to them after the show and stay connected.

Be a connector: Make it your goal to help one new person a day. That help might be introducing them to someone you know, it could be sharing a resource or as simple as inviting them to join you for lunch.

For many people, attending a trade show (especially if you’re alone) feels very isolated and even the most gregarious person can get a little shy. But if you’re the one being helpful, that’s takes a lot of the discomfort away.

High five the presenters: No matter how often someone speaks at a conference or trade show, it’s still a bit of a nerve-wracking experience. Even if they’re a superstar in their field, they still will appreciate a “way to go” or “I learned a lot” from you. Want it to be even more sticky? Tweet the “atta boy” to them and then follow up with a question. Odds are, you just added someone cool to your network!

Pace yourself: Most trade shows over-pack their events with speakers, socials, minglings and exhibit hall time. They want you to know that you’re getting your money’s worth. But no human being can go at that pace for several days in a row. Identify the two events each day that are “must see” and a couple more that are “would like to do’s.” Don’t let the schedule over schedule you.

Schedule an extra day at the end: I know it sounds ridiculous. You’ve already been out of the office for several days. Why add an extra one? If you don’t do your conference follow up (write blog posts, shoot off some emails, enter the business cards into your database with your notes, make some follow up calls and appointments) before you get caught up in the hustle and bustle of your regular work life – odds are, it will never get done.

If you aren’t going to set yourself up for success and all you want is to learn something new – save your money and watch a webinar or two. But if you really want to make the most of your investment – grab a couple of these tips and hit the ground running.

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How does your customer use what you sell?

August 24, 2012

An exercise we don’t do often enough (especially if you sell a service rather than a product) is taking a look at how our customers actually use what we sell them.

When you make the time (not take…make) to actually dig into the functionality, the how and where they use it, and what they have to do to it to make it more practical/useful, etc. you learn some very interesting things and it’s a great way to innovate an existing product.

How do you suppose Puffs came up with the tissue box that fits into your car’s cup holder?

 

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Why do the hard work of building a brand?

August 20, 2012

Let’s assume the following is true:

• Your brand is not your logo but instead it is the essence (heart, true north, reason for being) of your organization.
• A business either builds a brand of distinction or has to compete based on price
• A brand isn’t easy or common.  Most companies don’t have the courage to have a real one.
• A strong brand lets you focus on your sweet spot customers and let the others pass you by

All pretty good reasons for creating a brand. But building a brand is hard work.  It’s expensive, in terms of time, focus and even money. It requires the attention of your entire company — from the part-time janitor to the CEO and everyone in between.

Is it worth it?

Check out this post over at the Brand Establishment.  They make a pretty compelling argument that along with the benefits I listed above…a brand’s ROI includes:

• Increased customer loyalty
• Minimized negative effects of a crisis
• Better marketing and co-branding partners

I’m not saying it will be easy to build a brand.  But, when done right — it’s a game changer.   And that should be worth the effort and the risk.

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Why your brand is dead in the water

August 14, 2012

Here’s how most brand evolve.  The organization’s leadership huddles up at a corporate retreat (or if it’s a start-up, around the kitchen table) and decide on a tagline and maybe a logo.

The tagline becomes the battle cry of the brand and they’re off to the races.

Or worse yet…the organization hires an agency who claims to “do branding” and after a little deliberation, the ads have the new tagline and logo and voila, the brand is launched.

Fast forward 6 months or maybe a year.  The tagline and the brand are limping along.  No one really uses them anymore.  And if they do, they think of it as the “theme of the month” and assume it will just go away over time.  And it does.

There are many reasons why a brand fails….but the biggest one in my opinion is that the employees are not properly engaged and connected to the brand.  Without a huge investment of time, energy and some money — the brand remains a superficial cloak that can easily be pulled off or shrugged off when it gets to be a challenge.

Your employees are the key to a brand’s long term success.  It’s that simple.

When we are asked to develop a brand for a client, we require the step we have dubbed “seeding the brand” which is the whole idea of introducing the brand promise to the employees and letting them take ownership of it — deciding how to deliver the promise, how to remove the barriers to keeping the promise and how to keep the brand alive inside the organization.

If a client won’t agree to implementing that stage of the process, we won’t do their brand work.  No ifs, ands or buts. Why? Because it won’t work without that step. And I don’t believe we should take their money if we can’t deliver success.

Discovering and then building a brand takes a village.  And you have to start by including your own villagers.

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What clear signals do you suppose you’re missing?

August 8, 2012

I had a few little electrical projects that needed to be done around the house. So I turned to my Angie’s List favorites.

Once I found the right business, I had an array of choices in terms of how I wanted to connect with them.  I clicked on the email icon and jotted a quick note, describing exactly what I needed to have fixed.

Within a few hours the electrician emailed me back with this message: “Sounds good Drew, give me a call to discuss.”

Um, no.  I didn’t accidentally click on the email icon.  I made a conscious choice.  It’s not that I am anti-phone.  Heck…ask AT&T how pro-phone I am.  But, during business hours, I just don’t have time to talk to him.  I’m in meetings, on the phone with clients and on the run.  Which is why I emailed him to begin with.

What could have been an easy sale is now tangled up because he didn’t pay attention to the very clear signal I sent.  I don’t have time to call him…so odds are, the work just won’t get done for a little while.  A lost sale.

What clear signals do you suppose you’re missing?

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