October

Sarah Stambler's

E-Tactics
^® Letter

October 29, 2003
Volume 13, Issue 1

The 2003 E-Mail Marketer’s Challenge:
getting it opened, getting it read

When I first started sending e-mail campaigns back in 1985 messages were opened and read and response rates were sky high. That’s because we were reaching an elite group of people who were early adaptors who enjoyed their online life.

Today e-mail is so widespread and its inner workings are so much better understood we’re the victims of our own technological success. We’re hearing complaints from people that more than fifty percent of their mail boxes are filled with spam or unwanted, unrequested messages.

We’re entered the era of the DN’s: the Do Not Call List, now the Do Not Spam list is coming. We’re creating a culture of negative marketing arsenals to protect consumers from marketing that they do not want. "Back, back," or "Down, down," is the message the public is giving when more than 60 million sign up for the Do Not Call List.

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Reaching The Inner Circle

With so much negative back lash how can a marketer win? First we need to find out what’s really going on with those people who do use e-mail.. A new survey shows that a certain amount of elitism, selectivity or just plain human bandwidth limitations are placing restrictions on recipients’ attention spans. E-mail users regularly open and read e-mail from 10 to 20 companies or a maximum of 16 on average, according to a recent report from Quris.com. "This emerging circle of trusted companies from whom people are willing to keep reading e-mail presents a significant challenge for e-mail marketers," said the report on 1,691 completed responses to a survey funded by e-mail marketing services provider Quris Inc.

Read the full report at http://www.quris.com/innercircle.htm

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Open Rates Vary by Industry

Here are the results from an IMN Benchmark E-Marketing Research (formally IMakeNews.com), Based on Data From Over 100 Million E-Mails

In industry-by-industry comparisons, marketing communications companies (advertising, marketing, public relations, etc.) and retailers appear to be most successful at engaging their subscribers. Marketing communications firms achieve an average unique open rate of 63.2 percent, followed by retailers with a 55 percent open rate. Other benchmarks by vertical industry include:

Financial services—47.6 percent open rate

Manufacturing—43.4 percent open rate

Nonprofit organizations—41.1 percent open rate

Software development firms—40.9 percent open rate

Overall, the average unique open rate for IMN mailings is 39.4 percent.

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Readers Value Product Information

Once they open their e-mails, subscribers actively seek out product-oriented content. Across industries, articles containing information on companies’ products receive 29 percent of readers’ "unique clicks-throughs"*—followed by company news (18 percent), industry news (14 percent), "tips and tricks" (11 percent) and other topics.

The IMN study shows that on average, active e-newsletter subscribers read 64 percent of the content in each issue.

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Revenue, Cost & Response Rates By Direct Medium

Medium Revenue
Per Contact Promo
Per Contact Cost
Rates Response ROI
Index

E-mail $1.28 $0.09 0.99% 14.2

DRTV $1.35 $0.16 0.27% 8.4

Inserts $1.31 $0.18 1.46% 7.3

Direct Mail $3.95 $0.55 1.61% 7.2

Dimensional Mail $8.99 $1.61 3.46% 5.6

Radio $3.77 $0.74 0.38% 5.1

Catalog $2.88 $0.63 2.32% 4.6

Telephone $6.17 $1.45 5.73% 4.2

Coupons $1.32 $0.43 2.78% 3.1

Newspapers $0.75 $0.35 0.14% 2.1

FSIs $0.03 $0.06 0.09% 0.6

Magazines

$0.10 $0.22 0.13% 0.5

Source: DMA Response Rate Survey's Return On Investment Analysis.

SS NOTE: E-mail has the best ROI and leads the pack!

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One Minute Marketer:

Study Shows 'Free' Works in E-mail

An Oct 13^th article of DirectNewsline quoted e-PostDirect’s new findings. I thought you’d find them interesting:

Doing an e-mail campaign? Putting the word "free" along with the offer in a subject line is a definite plus, no matter what you've heard.

In fact, e-Post Direct discovered that in a six-week e-mail test it ran recently. "The free-offer subject line lifted response rates by 26%," said Michelle Feit, president of the e-mail marketing list company.

The subject line, "Free direct mail encyclopedia" beat out the benefit subject line, which said, "Boost sales, increase profits and expand marketplace awareness."

E-Post Direct conducted the test earlier this year, e-mailing out some 150,000 pitches in all. Recipients were a VNU business audience.

"We saw that by testing all these different segments and learning what is the best subject line, day to mail and copy and design to use, we could actually lift our results by 180%," Feit said. "Those variables have a real effect on the success of a campaign."

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Jupiter Study Looks at Inexpensive Ways to Influence Online Purchasing

A new Jupiter Research report has revealed that only 14% of consumers have been prompted to buy more often from online stores in response to personalized offers or recommendations.

The study, "Beyond the Personalization Myth: Cost Effective Alternatives to Influence Intent," also found that personalization only leads 8% of consumers to increase their visits to content, news or entertainment web sites.

Consumers would, however, make more online purchases or visit sites more often if the sites themselves were improved:

54% would like to see faster-loading pages, while 52% would like to see better navigation. "Most web site personalization projects fail to deliver real business benefits," according to research director Matthew Berk.. "Our industry has always assumed that a personalized web site was a better one, both for the visitor and the site operator. Our research has found that this is not the case."

Added senior vice president David Schatsky: "To drive key business metrics, most sites are better off focusing on the basics, like usability, information architecture and making key tasks easy for users to accomplish.

(MediaPost 10/15/2003)

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Need a Boost?

Let E-Tactics set up your next promotion or newsletter. We are a full service boutique interactive agency.

Give us a call — 212-222-1713 rings right on my desk.

In This Issue

THE 2003 E-MAIL MARKETER'S CHALLENGE:
GETTING IT OPENED, GETTING IT READ

Reaching The Inner Circle

Open Rates Vary by Industry

Readers Value Product Information

Revenue, Cost & Response Rates By Direct Medium

One Minute Marketer:

Study Shows 'Free' Works in E-Mail

Jupiter Study Looks at Inexpensive Ways to Influence Online Purchasing

Want to learn more about us? Please visit our site at:
www.e-tactics.com

Or write:
Sarah Stambler

Phone: (212) 222-1713

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Back Issues:
September, 2003
August, 2003
July, 2003
May, 2003
March, 2003
February, 2003
January, 2003
December, 2002
November, 2002
October, 2002
September, 2002
August, 2002
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The E-TACTICS LETTER, (ISSN 1542-2623) is published by E-Tactics, Inc. an electronic marketing and publishing firm established in 1984 that specializes in the creative use of electronic media in the design and implementation of customer driven marketing, research and publication strategies.

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