Top Tactics to Improve Relevancy and Deliverability. Sponsored by

Transcription

1 Top Tactics to Improve Relevancy and Deliverability Sponsored by

2 Introductions Sergio Balegno, Director of Research MarketingSherpa / MECLABS Primary Jeffrey Rice, Research Analyst MarketingSherpa / MECLABS Primary Tom Sather, Director Professional Services Return

3 Join the conversation on Twitter

4 Today s agenda Overview of marketing research for 2011 Top challenges facing marketers Relevancy and Deliverability how they go hand-in-hand How marketers improved deliverability using relevancy as a catalyst What you can do now to improve success metrics

5 Research overview Marketing Benchmark Report 8 th annual study of more than 1,100 marketers 150 charts and hundreds of marketer insights New research and insights for accelerating performance As mature tactic, improvements now measured in incremental steps Combining multiple improvement tactics accelerates performance Unique research perspectives The impact of marketing maturity on success Three dimensional views of top tactics All new metrics and benchmarking data

6 Relevancy will be the most significant challenge to marketing effectiveness in 2011 Q. How significant are the following challenges to marketing effectiveness 65% say targeting recipients with highly relevant content is a very significant challenge 39% say improving deliverability a very significant challenge

7 Relevancy means sending the right message to the right person at the right time Subscribers are inundated, more selective of messages they open and read About half of marketers still blasting subscribers with irrelevant messages Irrelevancy is the #1 reason subscribers unsubscribe also why not delivered

8 Why relevancy is the most significant challenge Three dimensional view of relevancy tactics High degree of difficulty to implement relevancy tactics Relevancy requires segmentation The most difficult issue we're facing is tracking a complex set of users with different needs so we can effectively deliver targeted content. Relevancy requires content Should we be content creators or aggregators? No time for executives to write down thoughts so we can position them as thought-leaders. Hard for ghost-writer to fake that.

9 Collecting segmentation data for personalization Organizations collecting subscriber data for personalization, by phase of marketing maturity Twice as many marketers in strategic phase track behavior and activity data than in trial phase Strategic marketers also much more likely to collect and use volunteered content preferences data

10 Using segmentation for content personalization Data used to personalize goes beyond subscriber name Used to create message or deliver content of interest to subscriber Minimal data available? Use what you ve got e.g. opt-in date to ID and reactivate inactive subscribers

11 Case study: Relevancy through personalization Health and wellness retailer moving from catalog-based to an e-commerce strategy. Tested and established a product recommendation system.

12 Proven Success Product recommendations lifted the website's conversion rate to 6.2% from 5.6% year over year. 7.8% of people who clicked through to visit the site from a weekly alert purchased a product.

13 Challenge How to extend the value of the product recommendations further, and improve the performance of the product recommendation program as a whole?

14 Solution: Transactional Confirmation benefits Customers expected to receive Encourage repeat sales Capture more data to improve product recommendations

15 Execution Establish recommendation system Test recommendation system Redesign confirmation to include HTML Format Company logo and tagline in header Order confirmation and date in header Thank you message Contact information Text-based list of products purchased Order total and shipping information Three product recommendations

16 Results customers per month click the recommendations in confirmation s 19% of those who do click a recommendation complete another purchase Recommendations in transaction s generate a 111% higher conversion rate among those who click a recommendation than the team's weekly alert s

17 How relevancy translates into deliverability an example: Relevant content boosts activity - increases open and click rates Increased open and click rates improve sender reputation Improved sender reputation reduces false-positive spam detection Reduced spam detection increases deliverability.

18 Trends in deliverability I ve got some good news and some bad news Improvements in deliverability offset by continued challenges Making it into the inbox Strict adherence to CAN-SPAM ACT and constant purging of inactive subscribers has helped significantly. Not making it into the inbox Junk folders and spam filters are getting more aggressive and we're seeing a slight rise in "soft bounces that seem to never really arrive.

19 Three dimensional view of deliverability tactics Fast and easy often trumps effectiveness Removing inactive subscribers from list is the most used but not the most effective tactic Dedicated IP address most effective but not most used

20 But to get to the end, you have to start at the beginning

21 Inbox Placement Rate Inbox Placement Rate (% of messages that are delivered straight to the inbox)

22 20% of Routinely Goes Undelivered

23 Shocked? Here s why

24 ISPs don t tell you if mail was junked or undelivered like the post office.

25 It s not up to your ESP, it s up to you!

26 Reputation is a set of metrics based on your sending behavior.

27 Engagement Filtering

28 10 Deliverability Tactics That Directly Affect Relevancy!

29 1 Know Your Inbox Placement Rate (Ask yourself the question Delivered Where?)

30 2 Monitor your Reputation!

31 3 Get a Seed List Monitoring Tool!

32 4 Remove Dead Addresses

33 5 Win Back Inactives

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35 6 Clean Out The Dead Ones 35

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37 7 Manage Frequency

38 8 Perform a Complaint Analysis

39 9 Maintain a permanent home

40 10 Have a solid infrastructure

41 Resources 1. Get your free Sender Score Report at It s a credit score for your Join CLUB INBOX at to talk to me and other RP experts in a community atmosphere. 3. Request a free consultation for an program assessment at

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