How Accurate Are Your E-Mail Delivery Rates?

Most email service providers will report messages that have been passed on to the Internet, and not “bounced”, as ‘delivered’; and subsequently reporting those metrics back to you in the form of a delivery rate. These delivery rates are often pretty high, and if your subsequent click thru rate is low…it must be the copy – not the quality of the list…right? 

Think about it, when was the last time you saw any email service provider report saying delivery rates were less than somewhere in the range of 95-99%? What this figure typically means is out of every 100 emails sent on your behalf, only 1 to 5 of those come back as a bad email address or undeliverable (also known as a bounce). Once an email is sent, and it doesn’t register as a bounce, that has to mean it has been successfully delivered to a recipient’s inbox, right?

Wrong.

According to the Email Deliverability Benchmark Report released by “Return Path” back in July, deliverability failures continue to plague marketers but not necessarily revealed in deliverability reports. According to Return Path, what these reports don’t take into consideration is that some ISPs may go on to block the message or that the recipient may have spam filters in place.  These exceptions leaves marketers with the impression that they are getting delivery rates of over 90% whereas around 80% was more likely. The reports goes on to say that for the first half of 2009 (January thru June); the average inbox placement rate for permission, commercial email in the US and Canada was 79.3%. Of the nearly 21% of email that is not delivered to the inbox, only 3.3% is sent to a “Junk” or “Bulk” email folder, while nearly 18% is simply not delivered at all – but not indicated as a bounce. Business email addresses protected by systems like Postini, Symantec or MessageLabs are even tougher where on average, only 72.4% of commercial email is delivered to the inbox through these enterprise systems. These systems are more likely to deliver messages to a junk folder as compared to consumer ISPs that are more likely to block email altogether. In the United States, of the top ISPs, the toughest inboxes to reach are those at MSN, Hotmail and Gmail. Marketers fare slightly better at Cox, USA.net and Time Warner Cable/Road Runner.

So what’s a smart marketer to do?

1. Don’t believe the bounce myth, that whatever gets sent and doesn’t bounce must have been received.  The metric that simply uses emails sent vs. emails bounced is a bounce rate…instead ask for a deliverability rate. If they don’t know the difference…shop elsewhere. You should also inquire about the availability of other metrics like open rates or click-thru rates…if the so-called “deliverability rate” is high, but open rate low (say <10%)…you should question the accuracy of the “deliverability rate”.

2. Verify the accuracy and activity of the subscription base: Focus on those e-newsletters or list-builds that are acquired through proven online publishers who themselves have a vested interest in aggregating accurate and responsive online addresses and audience for their own business purposes and promotion vs. perhaps a 3rd party provider who is aggregating addresses from a  mix of sources. Messages that your target audience doesn’t have access to will not generate a response.

3. Proven circulations are the way-to-go: E-newsletter publishers, especially those publications with a lengthy, proven track record, are likely to have a proven success rate and active readership. As a result, not only is the message more likely to be seen – the publishers should be able to give you a reasonable expectation range for subsequent activity for your campaign. 

4. Take some responsibility for the issue: According to Direct Path most of the major drivers of poor deliverability rates are the direct result of marketing practices, not technical ones. These include complaints, which spike when email is unexpected or undervalued by the recipient and spam traps, which are most often found on old lists or have been built with poorly sourced data. 

 Link to the report (registration might be required): http://www.returnpath.net/downloads/resources/NOAM_deliverability_study.pdf

Nobody is Clicking Anymore – But Banners are Still a Solid Investment

The number of people who click banner (‘display’) ads has dropped 50% in less than two years, and only 8% of internet users account for 85% of all clicks, according to the most recent “Natural Born Clickers” study from ComScore and media agency Starcom.

The study indicates that only 16% of U.S. internet users ever click on banner ads down from 32% who clicked on display advertising in July 2007.

Reading these study metrics alone might initially suggest that banner or display advertising might be a poor use of your marketing funds; especially in challenging times. However the study actually encourages banner / display advertising despite the declining click metrics; but it does suggest sto top measuring banner effectiveness on click-thru metrics alone.

If we put it in perspective; clicks are a direct-response measurement. For display campaigns, we need to look at brand-awareness studies, purchase-intent lifts and engagement rates. Comscore client surveys quoted in the study have shown display ads produce measurable lift in brand site visitation, trademark search, and both on- and offline sales, regardless of whether users clicked on the display ads themselves.

If you believe in “buy cycle marketing” (see my other posts on the topic); you understand (and accept) that users might work with an ad, but not click on it. That doesn’t mean the banner didn’t impact results elsewhere in your marketing mix.

Here’s the Clickz article on the study:
http://www.clickz.com/3635167

Google Sidewiki – How Will Advertisers React?

Google recently launched Google Sidewiki, which allows web searchers to contribute “helpful” information next to any webpage.

Google Sidewiki appears as a browser sidebar, where you can read and write entries along the side of the page…kind of like “comments” or reviews” (or like circa 1999 Thirdvoice “sticky notes” (google it…)).

In their own blog entry on the product, Google says “As you browse the web, it’s easy to forget how many people visit the same pages and look for the same information. Whether you’re researching advice on heart disease prevention or looking for museums to visit in New York City, many others have done the same and could have added their knowledge along the way…now you can”

So basically it allows you to leave and read “comments” and “reviews” other folks have made for a given website in their index; whether they are in the same context or not of your own interest or research…

In a perfect world it seems users of sidewiki would contribute a wealth of valuable information attached to every website, and users would monitor the content like some version of Wikipedia.

Unfortunately as we’ve all seen if we’ve spent the time reading comments on youtube, amazon, itunes or any web bulletin board / discussion group – we don’t live in a perfect world.

I have to suspect it will be a tough gig to keep Sidewiki from being plagued with erroneous comments, slander, sneaky advertising, spam, scams, trolls, flame wars, bad grammar, typos, bigotry and hatred.

I’m sure Google will attempt to combat this with its moderators and algorithms, but nothing is perfect.

It seems the actual owner of the webpage has no control over the Sidewiki – so how will Google handle their own advertisers frustrations over not only seeing comments that degrade them but realizing that they likely paid Google for the traffic that ultimately degraded them?

I’m sure Sidewiki has its uses…in the same way reviews on hotels.com, amazon, itunes and ebay do…but I personally see more “noise”  and “risk” than benefit…I wonder how long until webpage programmers figure out how to “optout” of sidewiki in the first place…

I think the big challenge is the context of the comments; just because I’m on a website about New York City – doesn’t mean I want comments of where to stay or where to eat…maybe my search is much more specific or granular than that; the comments will be hard to sift through…so I know I’ll end up just shutting it off.

What about b2b marketers – do you see an opportunity looming here?

Almost 1/5th of Time Online is Spent With Social Media

According to a new survey out from Nielson, we are spending on average 17 percent of our online time socializing, nearly triple the percentage of time spent on social media a year ago.

According to Jon Gibbs, the VP of Media & Agency Insights @ Nielsen’s online division: “While video and text content remain central to the Web experience – the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth.”

It appears this increase in usage is driving increased ad revenues as a result – year-over-year, estimated online advertising spend on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent, from approximately $49 million in August 2008 to approximately $108 million in August 2009.

It should be no surprise that the Entertainment Industry led in growing its online ad dollars, increasing ad spending on the top social network sites by 812% in August -but what about B2B?

Surprise surprise surprise…of the 13 industries tracked by Nielsen in this survey; B2B ranked 3rd in overall Year-Over-Year growth with 184% growth; only trailing Entertainment (812%) and Travel (364%).  Also surprisingly facebook was the leading platform for ad impressions for the b2b space.

You can see all 13 industries in the link below to the full survey.

The detail on spending and ad impressions for the 13 industries was fascinating; but I would have liked to see the breakdown of usage by these industries too – perhaps the 17% of time online is the average; but I have to suspect it’s lower for b2b folks (could be wrong); but overall some compelling trends to continue to monitor and watch.

http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_releases/2009/september/nielsen_reports_17

Email Grammar Lesson – e.g. versus i.e.

Although I’m not known for my grasp of the English language – I do feel that if I’m presenting myself as a marketer and choosing to frequently use email as a communication tool I should at least have a grasp of proper grammar. One thing I always get confused about is as to when I should use the abbreviation “e.g.” as opposed to “i.e.” in professional correspondence / emails.

 I’ve noticed that I prefer to use “e.g.” and others might more often prefer to use “i.e.” in very similar use cases – I asked someone who actually corrected my e.g. to an i.e. and they said “well i.e. stands for “in example”….which I knew was wrong…so I finally got to the bottom of it for my own education and have elected to share for no other reason than I have wasted so much time on it that I’m trying to recoup some return on my investment through the betterment of others…

1. e.g.

e.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means “for example.” You are supposed to use e.g. to introduce one or more possibilities among many.

I like outdoor sports, e.g., football, soccer.
(football and soccer are just one of many types of outdoor sports)

He wastes his money on junk, e.g. cars that don’t run.
(cars that don’t run are junk)

I’ll listen to any kind of music, e.g., country-western, rap, etc.
(Country-western and rap are just two of the many types of music that I’ll listen to)

An easy way to remember what e.g. means is to think of it as standing for “example given.”  

2. i.e.

i.e. stands for id est which means “that is.” Use i.e. when what you are introducing is equivalent to or an explanation of what comes before it in the sentence.

I like outdoor sports; i.e., the ones that are played outside on a grassy field.

He wastes his money on junk; i.e., stuff that he will never get around to fixing.

I’ll listen to anything; i.e., I like any kind of music.

Basically, i.e. means “in other words.” It’s used to reword or provide an alternate explanation.

 
The Bottom Line

e.g. and i.e. are both Latin abbreviations. Both introduce additional information, but e.g. offers an example while i.e. explains or rewords. If you can replace the abbreviation with “for example,” use e.g. If you can replace it with “in other words” or “that is,” use i.e.

Positive News and Trends for Manufacturing – ISM Report

Some fantastic positive news was published yesterday by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) on trends within the Manufacturing Sector. If you aren’t familiar with ISM – it’s a not-for-profit US based association with more than 40,000 members. The ISM serves purchasing and supply management professionals.

Every month since 1998 they publish a report called the Manufacturing Report On Business; the information in the report is gathered from both surveys of their members and global economic facts / trends.

As part of this report – they provide a “Purchasing Manager’s Index” or PMI – The PMI is a composite index of five “sub-indicators” including:

• Manufacturing Production Levels
• New Orders (from customers)
• Supplier Deliveries
• Inventory
• Employment Levels

The PMI figure can vary from 0 to 100; a PMI reading of 50 or higher generally indicates the industry is expanding and below 50 means it’s contracting. The rate of change of this reading over time is also important as a reading of 51 coming after a month with a reading of 56 would not be seen favorably – but a reading of 51 after a month <50; the opposite is true.

For August – the PMI was 52.9; the highest value since June 2007; in July the value was 48…a 4 percentage point increase and more importantly – the first greater than 50 rating in 18 months.

In short – it is saying that after a year and half decline in manufacturing – August is showing growth.

According to ISM – the growth was driven by significant strength in NEW ORDERS; which was up 9.6 points to 64.9 percent – the highest total since DECEMBER 2004.

Additionally; the growth appears sustainable as inventories have been reduced for 40 consecutive months and supply chains will have no choice but to re-stock to meet this new demand.

Some great news for us to leverage as marketers to make sure we are in front of what is expected to be a sustainable trend – new orders and increasing searching, sourcing and purchasing across the supply chain!

Link to the ISM report:

http://www.ism.ws/ismreport/mfgrob.cfm

Top Five B2B Twitter Mistakes (to me anyways…)

Just a quick short list of five mistakes you could make if you aren’t careful with how you are managing your b2b twitter account.

 I’m sure there are more – but these are the 5 big ones in my book

1. Making the mistake thinking that twitter is about talking vs. listening…Twitter is not the Internet version of the Town Crier where you simply ring your bell, yell something and then go back inside only to come out when it’s time to yell something again. Yelling something is fine; provided you are doing so to get followers to respond so that you can listen, reply and interact with them.

2. Over-editing or tightly-controlling your posts…Twitter is not about crafting one perfect post after another; what you “twit” doesn’t have a long shelf-life to begin with. Your message and personality gets developed over several posts throughout the day/week/month – people will forgive a less than perfect post…provided what you are saying initiates good discussions or passes along strong value or you follow it up quickly with something better.

3. Picking the wrong-person to run your twitter account or having someone tweet on behalf of someone else …o.k. so that’s really two separate mistakes but bear with me…First, your twitter posts are speaking on behalf of your company and your brand; make sure who ever is running your b2b twitter account is capable of making good judgments for the company so that everything that gets posted doesn’t need to run through an approval process and everything that is posted has some value. Secondly, if the person you want to run twitter is incapable of running twitter – you are picking the wrong person to be the face of any of your social media. If your CEO is too busy…don’t bother trying to impersonate your CEO – that could be embarrassing when it’s discovered – instead, pick someone else. Lastly; make sure who you pick is high enough in stature or presence that they can draw a following. In other word’s just because your marketing intern is “really good on computers” and “really gets” social media doesn’t mean he / she has the credibility / reputation to draw a following or to develop quality content.

4. Not updating regularly: People don’t expect hourly posts and they don’t necessarily expect daily posts – but they do expect meaningful / consistent activity. If you can’t regularly post content of solid value or discussion – you probably shouldn’t be bothering with social media to begin with.

5. Every post includes a link…occasionally or even frequently passing along other folks content via a link is fine – just don’t make it an occurrence in every post…especially if you happen to have folks who follow you with a mobile device; depending on reception; it’s easy to ignore these posts and eventually they could just end up ignoring you altogether.

Duke / AMA CMO Survey Indicates Optimism for the Future

An August 2009 CMO Survey, conducted by professor Christine Moorman of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business in conjunction with the American Marketing Association indicates some positive news for the future.

Key highlights:

Overall, 59 percent of marketers are more optimistic about the U.S. economy than they were just one quarter ago. 47 percent are feeling more optimistic about prospects for revenue from end customers and 39 percent more optimistic about revenue from channel partners (who resell products to end customers, e.g. distributors) than they were just three months ago.

Marketers continue to report a shift in spending away from traditional advertising (with a planned overall decrease of 8 percent) and toward Internet marketing, where they expect to increase investments by 10 percent. They report plans to increase spending on social media efforts by more than 300 percent in the next five years, increasing their marketing budget allocations for social media from 3.5 percent to 13.7 percent over the next five years. Social networking (65 percent), video and photosharing (52 percent) and blogging (50 percent) dominated firms’ social media patterns. Survey respondents report the five most frequently reported uses for social media tactics are brand building, customer acquisition, new product introductions, customer retention and market research.

Russia and Eastern Europe are the regions where marketers expect the most future growth to occur, with significant decreases in opportunities in Canada, Mexico and Western Europe.
 
http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/news_events/releases/207493/

Is a lead with a public email address as valuable as a lead with a business email address?

Since a good portion of my dialog with marketing folks revolves around the topic of lead generation; I’m sometimes in situations where what I perceive to be a valuable lead is not necessarily what my clients perceives to be a valuable lead. As I’ve said in some prior posts – I’ve learned the hard way that the first thing I absolutely have to do is get on the same page as my client / prospect as to what their definition of lead is, and a quality lead at that. Simple common definition issues can really create problems or expectation issues down the road; or even kill the sale altogether without common understanding of each other’s perceptions and definitions of leads.

One lead generation issue that has recently come up is the perceived value of a lead when the individual opts to use a public email address, such as a yahoo, hotmail or gmail as opposed to their “business” email address. There were some questions as to whether a lead had value, or the same kind of value, if they weren’t explicitly using their business email address.

Before we answer this question – I think there is an opportunity to first ask – why would a legitimate potential client choose to utilize a public email address vs. their work provided email address?

Based on my experience – here are a few reasons why:

• Prioritization: Most folks have “dual” addresses – we all have a gmail or yahoo account. If we registered for everything using our business email we would likely get 2-3 times as many emails as we already receive – my business email is for urgent business from external clients and internal correspondence…my sourcing and business research takes place in my gmail or yahoo account, which doesn’t mean it’s not important – it’s just typically not as urgent.

• Comfort: Plain and simple, most folks are just not comfortable using work email for anything but internal correspondence or client correspondence

• Privacy: People use public email accounts to “screen” information simply to make sure the site or information they’ve requested lives up to what they were expecting it too. My company sees this all the time from existing clients requesting some of our whitepapers – they use their gmail address; even though we have their business email address already on file.

• Control: A public email address gives me one level of anonymity in the event I’m not ready to engage in further dialog yet. My research is important – but again, it may not be urgent yet.

• Accessibility: Public email accounts are accessible via any web browser – any where; without having to log into secure VPNs or remote desktops – just simpler to do for folks when traveling or away from work computer on evenings, weekends etc.

• Portability: Folks like a permanent address in addition to their current address – if / when they switch jobs – they can still access certain information without interruption.

• Spam Control: Public email services like yahoo, gmail etc. have invested heavily in spam control technology…in some cases better than my own corporate spam controls.

 • Restrictions: There are certain companies and industries that flat out restrict the use or even access of work email for external communication due to security issues. For example; I spent two years working for a defense contractor– I was unable to receive or send email outside of the defense contractor network – but there were designated computers for external communication – but I had to use a public service email address when using them.

As you scan the list above – they all seem like plausible / reasonable answers why someone might elect to use a public email services – but I don’t think any of them ‘detract’ from the value of the lead. Whether a prospect opts to use a public email service or a business email service, it does not mean the individual is not a legitimate, qualified prospect – it simply means they are willing to receive unsolicited email – but only on their terms.

Hope this helps.

Top Ten Twitter Tools (to me anyways…)

Just a quick short list of a couple useful twitter applications to share; some of these are already commonly known but I wanted a complete list of those I’m using / exploring.

I’ve capped it at 10 simply due to the fact if you are using more than 10 twitter tools…you might need to get out more… J 

1. Tweet A File: http://tweetafile.com/ – free app that lets you send file attachments via twitter…something you couldn’t do “easily” before.
2. TweetDeck: http://tweetdeck.com/beta/ – Probably the most popular twitter app out there; allow users to send and receive tweets and view profiles, organize threads etc.
3. Tweet Later: http://www.tweetlater.com/ – this is a great idea for folks responsible for corporate twitter accounts – it lets you enter a bunch of updates in advance and schedule their release in the future; enabling you to appear as if you are twittering real time when you might just simply be tied up elsewhere.
4. Twitterfeed: http://twitterfeed.com/ – helps you send blog rss feed to twitter and gives you some analysis / tracking of feeds; just starting to toy around with this myself.
5. Twonvert: http://www.twonvert.com/ – free app that helps you convert “plain English” updates into shorthand language to reduce character usage. Doesn’t handle industry specific or “b2b” words well or typos – but handy overall.
6. Twittonary: http://www.twittonary.com/ – yup; that’s it – a dictionary for twitter lingo.
7. Monitter: http://monitter.com/ – real time, live twitter monitor that lets you monitor a set of keywords and what people are saying; a little tricky to figure out at first.
8. Twittercal: http://twittercal.com/ – if you use Google’s calendar app; this is a handy little tool that allows you to add events to your calendar right from twitter; simple little handy tool.
9. Mr. Tweet: http://mrtweet.com/ – it was described to me as similar to iTunes genius program; basically scans twitterdom for folks you might want to follow with similar interests. (bonus: http://twitter-friends.com/ looks to be similar)
10. ootweet: http://ootweet.com/ – lets you “archive” your favorite tweets or discussions; admittedly haven’t played around with much – but could be useful