By Bonnie Malone Fry, Director, Strategic Services, Return Path

 

In this article, you will learn:

1) 60% of all companies do not send a welcome e-mail to new subscribers;

2) 30% failed to send any message at all within the first 30 days;

3) 70% of companies that ask for additional information don't use it to personalize or customize their e-mails.

 

E-mail marketing is now a part of almost every company’s marketing plan. But, are your e-mail marketing efforts given as much energy and focus as every other part of your plan? Has your team examined the step-by-step experience that you’re creating for customers or potential customers who have signed up for your e-mail newsletter? If not, you are probably missing opportunities to increase your email ROI.

We recently subscribed to 61 companies’ e-mail programs and studied how those companies used e-mail. Unfortunately, our Return Path Subscriber Experiences study discovered that marketers are still making some very basic mistakes.

First, we’ll outline the mistakes that we found. Then, we’ll offer you some quick solutions so that you can avoid some of these missteps.

The Return Path Subscriber Experiences study found that:

• 60 percent of companies did not send a welcome email message.
• 30 percent failed to send any message at all within the 30-day study period.
• The first regular email message arrived an average of nine days after subscribing.
• While 70 percent of companies asked for more than email address at sign-up, three-quarters of the companies that collected additional information didn’t use it to personalize or customize their emails.

To create a great email program for your customers and potential customers, we recommend:

Don’t ask for data that you can’t (or won’t) use. If you don’t plan to customize your emails, keep your email sign-up short and sweet. In addition, a succinct sign-up form can increase your sign-ups.

Personalize and customize to increase value. If you are asking your subscribers for data, you should use it to customize your e-mails as much as possible. Include their names, send regional or demographic-tailored special offers. Customizing your e-mails increases the relevance for your customers and can directly lead to less churn and increased sales.

Send a welcome message within 24 hours. A potential customer has signed up for your e-mails and they’ve said, “I’m interested in your product. Market to me.” In the era of instant messaging, Twitter, and next-day shipping, your customers want to engage with you immediately. Don’t let them down.

These are just a few of the things we discovered with our recent Subscriber Experiences study. If you would like to learn more about the study, you can access a webcast here: www.returnpath.net/landing/subscribers. Downloading the webcast will trigger an e-mail message with a link to the study.

Bonnie Malone Fry has managed several multi-channel, multi-million dollar businesses for Fortune 100 companies in the the retail sector.

 

 

Creating a Great E-newsletter Experience