Using Click-Through Data in Your Email Marketing Campaign

One of the more practical and valuable features of using e-mail to market your business is using e-mail tracking reports to find out what your audience is doing with your e-mails after you send them. Every time someone clicks a link in your marketing e-mail, you have the opportunity to track the click back to the individual, use the information to accomplish more meaningful objectives, and increase the value of your e-mail list.

Click through data is a way of measuring the success of your email campaign using the number of unique individuals clicks (only one click per person is counted) who clicked on one or more links in an email expressed as a percentage of total tracked opens.

CALCULATED AS:

Total number of unique individuals who click a link in the email

-DIVIDED BY- the total number of tracked opens

OR CLICKS / OPENS = CLICK THROUGH RATE

So if there were 3 unique clicks and 30 opened emails:

3 clicks/30 opens = .1 clicks per open (multiplied by 100 to get CTR ) = 10% CTR

Average click-through rates vary widely by industry. Below are some ranges for average email click through rates for permission-based house lists.

• B2B (business to business) email newsletters typically range from 5% to 15%. If your CTRs are consistently below that level then among other things, you are probably providing content of little value to your email subscribers. Or you may have most of the content within your email, not giving subscribers a reason or means to click-through to your Web site.


• B2C (business to consumer) promotional email marketing campaign often range from about 2% to 12%. Email campaigns with less than a 2% CTR may be a result of over mailing and questionable email opt-in processes.


• Highly segmented and personalized email lists (B2B and B2C) are often in the 10% to 20% CTR range. Also, email messages with very strong content but sent to unsegmented lists, like many news or trend-type e-newsletters, are often in the 10%-15% range.


• Trigger or behavior-based email campaigns (emails that are sent to recipients based on some behavior they showed, such as clicking on a product link, visiting a specific Web page, etc.) are often in the 15% to 50% range.

Author: Rebecca Allas
Editor: Yasifur Rahman

Increasing Click-Through Rates Using Strong Call to Action

“As a command, “click here” is beautiful in its simplicity, but falls far short as a call to action – the trigger to launch the customer on the complicated path to conversion – because it doesn’t tell your email readers what you really want them to do.”

Millions of people use search engines daily and every one of those individuals are inundated with organic search listings and the same boring display ads. How do you set your emails apart from the rest for an increased click through rate and conversion?

An effective call to action in your email subject lines and ad text can bring substantial gains in CTR. To get the best results, you have to make clear exactly what you want your readers to do, giving a direct order with direct instructions. Using clear and obvious action words will help the recipient to understand not just where to click through, but why they should and what they can expect in the email.

BASIC SAMPLES OF CALL TO ACTIONS:

• Request more information!


• Sign up now!


• Discover the best deal of 2011!

Take your ad-writing skills to the next level! It is so important to master the skill of utilizing strong calls to action in your ads.

Author: Rebecca Allas
Editor: Yasifur Rahman

Autoresponders – What You Need to Know

Here at KobeMail, we know a thing or two about autoresponder mailings. For email marketers, the following information should be just a review. However, for those not in-the-know, autoresponders are the most widely used online marketing tool. Autoresponders have many names – mailbots, email responders, and autosenders – but regardless of what you call them, their importance is undeniable.

Once an autoresponder is successfully in place, your business can save time and money. Some autoresponder “systems” lead to abuse, which is why you should look to a full service email provider – such as KobeMail – to handle the sending of your autoresponders for you.

The term autoresponder comes from the idea of an email being sent to a subscriber after an action is taken on their end. The autoresponder should only be used for emails to customers who have signed up at your website to receive communications. Otherwise, you will likely face a lot of issues along the way.

An autoresponder should not be chosen solely based on its cost. Instead, you should look at the included features of the service, the reputation of the provider, and other elements to determine which system is the best for your needs. An autoresponder service is elemental in business success today. The online world is full of missed opportunities and you can't let communication with your customers be one of those issues.

Happy Mailing!

How to Send More Effectively

According to Forrester, by 2014 the average email user will receive over 9,000 marketing email messages per year. If you break that down, it equates to a user receiving 25 marketing emails every single day.

ISPs have a limited threshold for emails, so when the frequency of mailing gets ramped up, marketers have to find a new path into the inbox. Below are a few suggestions for marketers, especially those who still plan on mailing at a high rate, to separate themselves from other mailers and find their messages in the inbox of their readers.

1. Remailing. Based on a certain behavior of the reader, you can remail. If there was no click, no open, or no purchase, you can set up a remail automation. You can also remail to a certain list when you are running a special or a promotion. The biggest piece of advice associated with remailing: don’t abuse it.

2. Automation. Creating automated messages, based off of triggers, will increase your revenue. Automating your messages allows you to set up a specific schedule of mailing for specific actions taken by the reader (abandoned cart, site behavior, etc.)

3. Holidays. Aside from the major holidays that fall during the end of the calendar year, you should be taking advantage of the many other holidays throughout the year. Do you have an international audience? If so, capitalize on their specific holidays. There are extensive lists available online of all holidays – be creative and utilize the day!

4. Segmentation. We have mentioned the concept of segmentation before, but it is too important not to mention again. Segmentation allows you to send more frequently based on specific actions or preferences of your readers.

Sending emails at a high frequency can be a good thing, so long as you do not abuse it. Always remember to mail wisely, use an email marketing agency like KobeMail, and build your email lists organically!

Happy Mailing!

Author: Peter Schirripa

Safeguard and Enhance Deliverability

The entire goal of email marketing is to reach the inbox, and thus the users, as often as possible. At KobeMail, we pride ourselves on our top deliverability rates, but as marketers, you have to take some steps toward safeguarding deliverability yourselves. Here are a handful of tips to do so…

KobeMail offers an extensive reporting package, which we monitor closely on our end daily. In order to up your deliverability rates, consider switching analyzing campaign metrics for yourself before you send out your next mailing, rather than looking at the metrics after the mailing has already gone out. Taking the time to analyze opens, click thru rates, bounces, etc before you continue mailing will allow you to optimize campaigns and strategies to get the best performance possible out of your campaigns. Being proactive with your campaign strategies will help to boost your deliverability rate.

Similarly, if you’re seeing negative changes in your reporting numbers, fix the problem immediately. Avoid sending out another mailing with a template or subject line that isn’t performing because it’s very likely that it will perform poorly again. Figure out the problem and amend it quickly. There’s no need to waste mailings on graphics or text that aren’t working!

If you’re not being upfront about exactly what you will be mailing to your users when they sign up, it’s imperative you become candid quickly. In the same vein, if you are telling users they will receive 1 type of mailing from you and suddenly they begin to receive another type without warning or signing up for it, chances are pretty high that they’ll begin to “junk” your mailings. You can be sure that this will cause your deliverability rate to plummet. As with everything, even in email marketing, honesty is the best policy.

For those users who are clicking “spam” or “junk,” take them off your list the minute they do so. If they “spammed” you once, they’ll do it again. Why rack up unnecessary spam complaints when scrubbing your list is so effortless, particularly with our new product iSuppress, which handles every facet of suppression list management including list scrubbing. The same holds true for bounced emails. If you’re seeing upwards of 5 bounces (whether hard or soft) from the same user, get them off your list! A clean list will definitely improve your deliverability and keep your users happy too.

Just by taking a few extra steps before and after each mailing you send, you’ll notice an improvement in your deliverability rates. It is of course important to be affiliated with an email service provider who has a great relationship with ISPs (like us at KobeMail!), but there are always steps you can take as email marketers to improve your own performance.

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Anthony Lee

Sending B2B Email Marketing Campaigns?

If you are an email marketer, you are used to sending campaigns either B2C or B2B. In today’s article, we want to shed some light on how to successfully send a B2B email marketing campaign. To successfully sell B2B, you should be focusing on the long-term relationship built between your company and other companies. Here are some suggestions on how to strengthen B2B relationships:

1. Be personal. If you are used to sending email campaigns B2C, you are probably used to sending mass emails with very general subject lines. However, in order to gain the loyalty of another business, you need to prove to them that they are more than just a number on your email list. Try to make the emails sent to other businesses as personal as possible – include any information you may have: names, past purchases, dates, etc. Make it known that their business is important to you.

2. Develop solid groundwork. Trust is key when trying to establish a B2B relationship. Businesses will always choose to get their products from a company they know and trust over a company that they do not. Trust leads to relationships, and relationships lead to sales.

3. Go beyond the sale. Once you make the sale, your job is not finished. You want to continually follow up with the new client to ensure that their experience is ideal. Sending them regular emails with how-to instructions or just follow up questionnaires show them that you are concerned with their well-being. The more you can offer your customer, the more they will value your service.

Continue reading the KobeMail blog for insight in the email marketing industry.

Happy mailing!

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth

Revamping Your Current Email Marketing Strategy

The most successful email marketers will tell you that you must constantly update your email marketing strategy in order to stay relevant to your subscribers and up to date with the most recent technologies. Here at KobeMail, we have seen all different types of approaches. While different strategies work for different companies, we have listed a few suggestions below that apply to any company who uses email marketing:

1. Hire an email service provider. KobeMail helps make it easier for companies to email successfully. Some companies still use in-house mailing departments to handle their email marketing, but we would highly recommend outsourcing. The statistical research that ESP’s can offer cannot be matched by an in-house department.

2. Set up a regular schedule for your mailings. You want to send emails on a consistent basis so your users will anticipate an email from you. If you take a month off from mailing anything, your readers are going to forget about you. If you decide to send five emails in a week when you normally send only one, your readers are going to get annoyed, fast. Consistency builds trust and anticipation; two things that will boost your open and click through rates.

3. Build a custom template to use. In order to be noticed by your subscribers, you want to make sure that your emails are unique. Remain consistent with your mailings by using the same or a similar template for all mailings. Be sure not to use too generic of a template- be unique!

4. Focus on Reporting. Extensive reporting is available if you are using an ESP. However, many companies make the mistake of not really delving into their reports. Open rates, click-through rates, and A/B splits are just three of the many units of measure that every successful email marketer looks into deeply. Taking the time to analyze your reporting will allow you to optimize your campaigns and improve performance.

Continue reading the KobeMail blog for more insight on how to successfully manage your email campaigns.

Happy mailing!

Author: Peter Schirripa

Editor: Courtney Dillsworth