It’s a common problem for many marketers, but one that’s easy to avoid if you ask the right questions prior to purchasing your list. In a recent article, Chris Golec of  Demandbase outlines eight key questions you want to ask the list company.

1. What makes your data unique?

Because there are so many data provides, it’s important to ask what makes the data in the list you are considering unique. You don’t want to purchase a list that overlaps the data you already have.

2. How often do you refresh your data?

It’s important to know how often your data provider adds names to its database, but it is perhaps even more important to know how often names are removed from the database and what steps are taken to prevent “dead” names from being added back in.

3. How is your data priced? Is there a minimum purchase?

Although the cost-per-lead price may sound minuscule, minimum purchase requirements could easily push you over your budget. In addition to inquiring about minimum purchase requirements or what the price breaks might be for larger purchases, ask about the vendor’s filtering system to ensure you will not wind up purchasing irrelevant contacts.

4. How do you handle inaccurate data?

Regardless of where you purchase your data, there are bound to be some inaccuracies. Prior to purchasing, work with your provider to establish some sort of “return policy” for bad data. Reputable companies will usually offer a full credit for data proven to be incorrect, as it helps them maintain database accuracy.

5. Do you remove or credit duplicates for contacts I already own?

A common frustration when purchasing lists is acquiring contacts you already have in your database. Make sure your data provider has some sort of system in place to remove or to credit back contacts you already own.

6. How are your lists targeted? Do I need to pay for any filters to refine my list?

Some companies charge you to run filters against their database that help you to target your list to your specific needs. For example, if you were looking for a list of marketing contacts at software companies, you might be charged $300 to remove all non-software companies and another $300 to target the marketers.

7. Do we own the data, or are we renting the list?

Data providers often rent out their subscriber lists for “one-time” mailings. You send them creative, and they run the email campaign for you and report back on opens and click-through rates. However, the real measure of success is conversions—how many people filled out the form on the Web page that was included in the body of the email. A conversion is the only way to capture the contact information of anyone in the list that you rented.

With a list rental, the cost per lead is much lower than it is for an outright purchase, but you do not own the information and cannot market to contacts again without renting the list again. Make sure to clarify whether the cost-per-lead is for a rental or for a list purchase.

8. Can I send email to the contacts I purchase from you? Are they “opt-in”?

If you are buying a list  that is marketed as “opt in,” be very careful; and keep in mind that the people on the list have not opted in to receiving emails specifically from your company. Opt-in is the gold standard in email marketing, without a doubt, but CAN-SPAM is the law and it does not cite “opt-in” as a requirement. Agree on a policy internally that will not only preserve your reputation but also allow growth of your brand and sales pipeline through the use of email.

Also consider the campaign requirements from your email vendor. Some companies require you to be able to prove “opt-in” on every email you send, while others simply require you to comply with the law.

Read Chris’ full article for more in-depth information on purchasing a marketing list.

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Consider this 72-character subject line, and see what happens as it begins to get truncated.

New herbal fresh soap available at special price at your  local Harry’s (full length)

New herbal fresh soap available at special price a (50 characters)

New herbal fresh soap available at speci (40 characters)

Also, be sure to place as much critical information at the beginning of your subject line, rather than at the end as a hedge against important content being truncated. In the examples above, the name of the retailer gets chopped off, as does the “special price” reference in the 40-character version. Those are pretty important pieces of information that the marketer surely would want front and center.

In a recent  Email Marketing Reports post, Mark Brownlow offers up this free Excel spreadsheet that shows you how your subject line looks at any length between 10 and 125 characters. It’s a great tool that’s definitely worth downloading.

Bottom Line

1. When writing email subject lines, keep character count limitations in mind.
2. Put the most important information up front.

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1. Boast to your subscribers about your prowess in email marketing. And do it often. They really care about this.
2. Forget about what your subscribers want; you’re in this to generate revenue. So, be sure to send them an email everyday and eventually they’re bound to buy something. Or opt out.
3. Remember, you’re not really sending emails or communications, your sending “blasts” and all that the name implies. Get those subscribers in your sights and blast and blast away.
4. You know all those white papers, articles and blogs that cover email marketing best practices? Print them out and turn them into paper airplanes. C’mon, no one knows better than you anyway.
5. People signed up for your email so they must obviously want it. They crave it. That said, don’t spend too much time thinking about what you send, they’ll be happy to get anything. They’re so needy.
6. Don’t waste money on an email expert to run your program since any bozo can do the job. No bozos around?  Grab someone from the mail room; they’re experts with the mail, right?
7. Choose an email service provider based on the following criteria: A) they can send email, and B) they are the cheapest ones around. Don’t be bothered with trivial things like does their user interface and service support suck.
8. Never grow your list organically when you can buy a list with 4 million opt-in names for just $99. Hey, who doesn’t love a bargain?
9. And finally, be sure to let your CMO or president tell you how to run the show. Just because he or she does not fully understand what you do, that’s no reason to think they can’t do it better.

Pearls, indeed.

Click here for Andrew Kordek’s complete post.

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Given today’s economy, it’s no surprise that coupons are being clipped faster than the dialog in a David Mamet play. A quick Google search will tell you that e-coupons are just as prevalent. And while retailers may be chalking up incremental sales due to e-coupons, they may also be giving too much away too easily.

According to Alex Rampell, CEO of TrialPay, an e-commerce solutions company in Mountain View, Calif., many companies are offering e-coupons to prospects who were ready to complete their online transaction without any additional incentive.

Look for smarter ways to link coupons to behavior. Take a company like the Gap — anyone can shop at the Gap online, then do a search for coupons and pay less. Wouldn’t it be better for the Gap to target people who are non-Gap shoppers? Instead of making coupons available to Joe Public on the Internet, it might be better — just as a for instance — to offer Gap coupons to consumers when they sign up for Weight Watchers, or when they buy a baby book at Amazon.

Read more of what he has to say in this interview with Media Post’s Sarah Mahony.

Image courtesy of ehow.com

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In the early days of email marketing, one could simply place a well executed graphic into an email template, deploy and be reasonably certain that what the recipient would see is what was sent. Not so today.

With so many different email programs –  each with a different level of graphical support – plus spam filters becoming increasingly more sensitive, there’s a good chance that your images will be blocked.

The problem with images
Most email programs turn images off by default so when recipients first see your message, they will be looking at a bunch of red Xs instead of what you intended them to see. Coding your email with HTML text allows recipients to partially read your message even if images are blocked. For example, let’s say you’re creating an email to promote a sales event and your agency has designed a fantastic logo in support of the event. You want that graphic in your communication because it likely ties into your other marketing materials. No problem, just make sure that in addition to this logo, the name of the event is referenced prominently using HTML text. That way, if the logo is blocked, the recipient will still receive the critical information.

Many spam filters analyze the text-to-image ratio in a message and will block messages that are made up mostly of images. Meaning that the flyer you printed and then repurposed into a single image email to save money, well it may get flagged as spam.

Some web-based email platforms, such as AOL and Hotmail, do not always support image maps. As a result, your recipients may be able to see your email fine, but could be unable to click through to your site, microsite, or wherever else the email links direct them.

Solution: find the right balance between images and HTML text
Given these challenges, you can still design an effective email that looks great and works as it’s intended. Although you don’t want to over do it with imagery for the reasons noted above, you also don’t want to create an email that’s nothing more than text. It will bore the recipient and reflect poorly on your organization.

Avoid using fancy display fonts since they’re not supported on all computers. Instead, stick with standard fonts that come installed on most Windows-based machines and Macs. Some tried and true choices include Helvetica, Arial, Veranda, Times New Roman and Courier.

Finally, make sure to include critical text in the top portion of the email (above the fold). That way, recipients who use the preview pane will see your key points of communication, even if the images are blocked.

The bottom line
A beautiful email isn’t worth the 1s and 0s it was created with if the recipient sees nothing more than red Xs. However, by finding the right balance of HTML text and images, you can ensure that your message gets the point across clearly and effectively.

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Image courtesy of Intructables.com

Common sense, right? If one of your email subscribers requests to be removed from your list, and even mentions that they never signed up in the first place, you remove them promptly with no questions asked. Perhaps you even add an apology for any misunderstanding.

You and I know this, but apparently, not all companies do. Read on.

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Image courtesy of smoothtransitionslawblog.com

We’re all aware that email marketing is one of the most cost efficient and effective ways to reach your target audience. But if you’re not conducting A/B tests, you could be short changing your open rates, click-through rates and conversions. Creating two different versions (A and B) of your email and sending each to a different half of your database allows you to easily see what resonates with your target and what doesn’t.

Treat it like science
A/B testing provides an objective way of evaluating message effectiveness in what is traditionally an intuitive creative process. As such, it’s important to approach your tests like a true science experiment. First, send out a well executed eblast that will serve as your benchmark, against which you’ll measure the results of your A/B test.

The next step is to optimize/modify two new versions of the eblast to see how the change impacts the results. For example, you may want to experiment with two different subject lines, the placement of a button, the call to action, or simply the background color. What’s important to remember here is that for a true A/B test, you should only test one change at a time. That way you can clearly determine which change is influencing the target’s behavior.

See what pulls
Once you have these two new and different versions, deploy each to one half of your database and see how the results compare to your benchmark figures. Look at how many people opened each email, clicked through and converted across the call to action. This analysis will help you identify fallout points which influence where and what you should focus on for subsequent A/B tests. From there, you can continue to modify the message or design in your quest for even better results. But remember, only one change at a time.

Broader application
A/B testing isn’t just for eblasts. You can apply the same techniques to landing pages, web banners, paid search ads and more.

The bottom line
A/B testing makes sense for a number of reasons. It allows you to prove a point that may not have been supported by empirical data in the past, e.g. this headline will pull better than that one. Plus, it adds a level of accountability to the process which may, eventually, help you build a bigger interactive marketing budget. And who couldn’t use that?

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Do people scan  online newsletters for quick bites of info that they can click on, or are they looking for more in-depth information? The answer is yes to both.

A recent Cynthia Edwards article in Email Insider explores the different types of information people expect from various newsletters. Read the article here.

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“Very few executives give a hoot about opens and clicks,” says Stephanie Miller in a post at the Daily Fix blog. “In fact, very few marketers even look at their email system reports (I can’t make this stuff up!).”

The problem, she argues, is that these types of data cannot be directly connected to ROI; rather, they indicate behavior that leads to ROI. Important to you, perhaps, but not so much to the bottom-line-watchers. To grab your leadership team’s interest, Miller says, you’ll need to also show them metrics like these:
•    Revenue per email campaign
•    Revenue per subscriber (and subscriber segment)
•    Conversion rate
•    Unsubscribe rate
•    Average order size
•    New subscriber growth rate

“To improve performance,” Miller stresses, “[w]e need to see the data at the subscriber level, (or at least subscriber-segment level) and not just in aggregate.”

This means asking your email vendor or IT administrator for even better reporting. “Are you seeing trend reports?” she asks. “Are you seeing response and revenue linked? Are you seeing if email messages actually reach the inbox—by domain and campaign?”

The Po!nt: Dig deeper. Use metrics like these to give your company’s leadership the numbers they want to see—and stats they can understand.

Source: MarketingProfs. Read the full post here.

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The current recession has accelerated the shift to digital media and marketing. Recently, Borrell Associates predicted that advertising revenue from direct mail is expected to plunge 39% by 2013. Email was singled out as the key beneficiary of direct mail’s decline

Read the entire article here.

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