The best gauge of marketing success is how well your email program meets your specific company objectives. However, knowing how your program measures up to industry benchmarks can help you the next time a senior executive asks, “How do we compare to everybody else?”

Benchmarks generally do not replace data showing how your marketing program has contributed to your company’s bottom line, solved problems for other departments or helped your company achieve other goals. However, knowing how well you compare to your industry peers and the market’s top performers sets a baseline, especially if you lack real numbers or need help to defend your budget allocation or request additional resources.

Benchmarks can help you answer three questions about your marketing program’s performance:

1. How are we doing compared to everyone else?
These industrywide comparisons tell you if you’re in the statistical ballpark, but not whether you’re sitting in the corporate skybox or the bleachers.

They’re usually reported as averages, which are easy to understand and calculate but not as meaningful as the median (the data point at the exact midpoint of results). 

Also, many email industry benchmark reports treat all data equally, even though we know B2B and B2C lists or lists with different permission levels perform differently.

When you read a benchmark study, see if the data reflects peer companies in your market sector. For example, B2C benchmarks would be interesting but not particularly relevant to a B2B marketer.

2. How are we doing compared to the top performers in our industry?
Today, “average” is the new bottom. Better to compare yourself to the top performers in your market sector. Silverpop’s study compares performances among email senders in the top- and bottom-performing quartiles. In many case, the “average” benchmark differs little from performance in the lowest quartile.

3. How do we compare to our own goals?
This is your benchmarking gold standard, because these statistics are the most relevant. If your company hasn’t previously tracked performance in “process” metrics (opens, clicks, unsubscribes, spam complaints, etc.), it’s time to open a spreadsheet and start filling in the numbers.

As you compare, remember that “output” metrics (revenue, leads, cost savings, order size, repeat orders) actually measure how well you are meeting business goals, which is your best set of benchmarks.

Benchmarks from Silverpop’s International Study
Silverpop’s newest International Email Marketing Benchmark Study generated a new set of performance benchmarks for email marketers and compares metrics in the top and bottom quartiles. Here’s a selection of findings from the Silverpop study.

• Unsubscribe rate higher among lower performers: While the best-performing messages have few to no unsubscribers, little difference exists between average and bottom-quartile performers.

However, the overall unsubscribe rate for bottom-quartile performers (0.26 percent) is almost three times higher than median performers (0.09).

• Bounce rate lower for top performers: The average bounce rate of 5.5 percent was more than four times the rate among top performers (1.2 percent).

In the United Kingdom, the average bounce rate was 3.6 percent. However the bounce rate for companies in the bottom quartile (4.1 percent) was about 8 times higher than the bounce rate for the top performers (0.5 percent).

• Click/open rates vary: Bottom-quartile performers saw fewer than 1.3 opens per opener compared to a 1.66 overall average. For clicks per clicker, top-quartile performers (1.6 clicks/clicker) were 19 percent higher than the median (1.34) and 35 percent higher than bottom performers (1.19).

 The full report explains the methodology and presents the complete list of benchmarks. Download your copy here.

I was having a conversation with a colleague recently about deliverability, and as these discussions sometimes do, it started to become a bit heated. This person was disgusted by the rules and filters emails are currently subjected to. He said, “I send properly authenticated emails, make sure my emails are active on white lists, and have an engaged, current subscriber list. Why do I still have deliverability issues? What did I do to deserve this?”

The fact is, he hadn’t “done” anything wrong—and in fact was doing most things right. The problem is that spammers have wreaked havoc on the email ecosystem over the years, creating deliverability challenges for email marketers. And recent studies show that spam is still alive and well—and adapting every day! As a result of spammer tactics, others—like my colleague—end up suffering decreased deliverability.

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel. ISPs and inbox providers are working steadily to improve the email delivery experience because they know their recipients want to receive the good and not the ugly. So while it may sometimes feel that all we hear about are new email deliverability requirements, these steps are being taken to ensure the good get through and the bad stay out. In the meantime, here are three things you can do to help keep your delivery rates strong:

1. Authenticate, authenticate, authenticate! Make sure all sending domains have a valid SPF, Sender ID and Domain key/DKIM signature.
2. Keep your lists clean. Remove subscribers who haven’t opened any emails in the past year, or place them in a special re-engagement campaign.
3. Make sure your users stay engaged. Recipient behavior has never been more important. If you find open and click rates are starting to drop off, take a step back and re-evaluate your sending practices. It could be you’re sending too often, too infrequently or that your recipients are just no longer interested in your content. Mix it up. The happier your recipients are, the happier you’ll be with your deliverability.

Curious about what other steps you can take to improve email delivery? Check out the Silverpop deliverability Webinar, “Email Deliverability 201: Why Even Good Senders Get Blocked” this Thursday, March 18 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EDT. I’ll be presenting it with Tom Bartel, VP, Receiver and Certification Services, Return Path.

The Silverpop Deliverability Team has been notified that AT&T will discontinue the Worldnet service on March 31 and transition those users over to the AT&T service platform. What does that mean for email marketers? It means that if you’re sending to those users with a @worldnet.att.net email address, it will become invalid after March 31.

AT&T is requiring that Worldnet subscribers take action to transfer their service and email address. Essentially, AT&T will be changing the subscriber’s email address from johndoe@worldnet.att.net to johndoe@att.net, but only if the subscriber requests the transfer to occur and if the att.net email address is available.

We don’t recommend that you change every email address in your list from @worldnet.att.net to @att.net in case those email addresses already belong to someone else. The Silverpop Deliverability Team does recommend that you research your list and potentially reach out to these subscribers to get an alternate email address so that they can continue to receive your emails.

For more information about this transition, please visit http://help.att.net/att795.html?platform=none.

Goodmail, a CertifiedEmail provider, recently announced that Yahoo will be reducing privileges granted to CertifiedEmail messages. How will this impact companies using Goodmail? It means that Goodmail can no longer assure inbox delivery to Yahoo since emails will now be subject to Yahoo filtering policies. It also means that images and links won’t be enabled for every email that’s sent into the Yahoo network.

This change will affect the entire Yahoo family of domains, including international ones. We hope that negotiations between Yahoo and Goodmail continue so that email marketers will be able to confidently resume using Goodmail CertifiedEmail to send to Yahoo.

If you’re a current Goodmail client, it’s important to pay attention to your reporting and monitor your Yahoo deliverability metrics. And it’s always a good idea to follow deliverability best practices even if you’re a Goodmail client.

Yahoo has stated that it’s focusing more attention on “engagement metrics,” which means it wants to see that your customers have opened and clicked on your emails. So, make sure you’re actively sending relevant, targeted messages to your recent openers and clickers to keep your “engagement metrics” up. And remember to adhere to these additional best practices:

• Draft messages with a 30:70 text-to-image ratio
• Monitor abuse complaints for each mailing and aim to keep the complaint rate below 0.3 percent
• Keep bounces low (below 10 percent) by being vigilant about verifying email addresses before adding them to your database and doing list hygiene to remove undeliverable addresses
• Explain to customers upfront what they can expect from your communications in terms of frequency and content
• Add an unsubscribe link and an “add to address book” statement at the top of each mailing

Despite the recent Yahoo development, Goodmail continues to grow, announcing that its CertifiedEmail will be expanding to Verizon.net and Mail.com in the upcoming weeks and possibly other larger ISPs in the near future. But regardless of how these developments play out, you can keep your deliverability rates high by following the tips listed above.

As if email inboxes weren’t multitasking hard enough, Google has upped the ante by adding social networking to its Gmail service.

Its newest product, Google Buzz, incorporates status updates and shared content such as photos, video and links from people the user is connected to. Users can view this content either in the Gmail inbox, along with email messages, or in a separate Buzz “inbox” accessed by clicking a link in the left-hand navigation list within Gmail.

Although Gmail might account for about 10 to 15 percent of the email addresses on a B2C list (maybe as high as 25 percent on newer mailing lists), it does have several implications for email marketers:

1. Email inbox interfaces are busier than ever. Besides Gmail, email clients including Xobni and Outlook and Webmail services such as Yahoo have expanded inbox functionality. Yahoo, for example, recently added inline chat, a beefed-up calendar and links to Flickr and PayPal.

The functions are designed to integrate with and complement email, but they also can distract the user from reading email.

2. The inbox itself will be more crowded than ever. Buzz will send alerts whenever anyone the user follows posts fresh content. Your messages will face added competition that’s even more relevant because it comes from people the user actively chooses to follow.

If they’re exceptionally busy social networkers, expect to see these alerts push your email marketing messages farther away from the fresh-content sweet spot.

At this time, Buzz is brand new, so it’s too early to predict its long-term impact. Google has a mixed track record–with some services such as Gmail continuing to gain market share, while services like Orkut and Wave seem to be relegated to also-ran status.

Here’s how you can rise to the challenge of inboxes that have gone social:

1. Work harder to get your sending email address added to recipients’ contact lists or address books. Not only does this make your email more deliverable through personal whitelisting, but also because Buzz automatically follows anyone on the user’s contact list.

Ask for this at opt-in and in your welcome message as well as in the administrative area of your messages where you post recurring information.

2. Brand your “From” and subject lines. Your messages must stand out, now more than ever and in inboxes all over, not just Gmail. Your From and subject lines should reflect your company name, brand, newsletter name and the like.

Don’t use a person’s name or email address (those with “rock star” status can be exceptions). Vague subject lines will fade into the woodwork, so tell your story in the inbox (value proposition, call to action, etc.). Subject lines that surprise, delight, make you laugh or otherwise get the recipient to engage are never more vital.

3. One-to-one messaging must replace one-to-many broadcasts. Buzz is designed to keep its users in Gmail more often and longer than usual, so it might train them to check for new messages more often than once or twice daily.

However, alerts–not just from Buzz but also from other social networks like Facebook (assuming it will eventually be pulled in to Buzz) and Twitter–represent a flood of highly relevant material that could bury impersonal broadcast email messages.

Wrapping Up
Time will tell which content and approach will help you stand out. Personalization that reflects preferences and buying history, triggered emails and value-added transactional emails will become even more important.

Tracking your clicks and giving users many opportunities to tell you what they want will show you the right path.

Have you been contemplating incorporating video into your email marketing program, but were confused by all of the technical aspects, or whether it even made sense for your company? I’ve personally experienced the struggles and challenges incorporating video into email introduces, but found our recent Webinar with LiveClicker helped answer a number of questions.

Email marketers who experiment without a proper understanding of where video works, where it doesn’t, limitations of video inclusion methods and a thorough understanding of video best practices are likely to encounter significant roadblocks. In the webinar, Justin Foster of LiveClicker outlined best practices for incorporating video into email.

How do you know if video makes sense for your campaign?

• Does video have a strong potential to deliver on message objectives?
• Can you envision a video that “makes sense?”
• Do you have the knowledge required to increase the performance of video so it meets objectives?
• Do you understand the limitations of video in email?
• Are you prepared to launch in-email video given the limitations?

What are the benefits to using video in email?

• It creates a renewed interest in the channel
• Contributes to budget increase
• Increases in average order value
• Increases in conversion rate
• Tells a story
• Differentiates the brand
• Humanizes an offer

When is incorporating video in email appropriate?

• When it is relevant
• When it adds value to the subscriber experience
• When it is a primary callout in the email
• When it is used as a “teaser”

When should it NOT be included in email?

• When it’s a distraction
• If it’s not relevant
• If you are unable or unprepared to educate internal stakeholders about limitations of in-email
• If it must be placed below the fold
• If the costs outweigh the benefits video
• If it needs to be longer than ~45 seconds to work in-email

Check out our Webinar resources pages for links to archived Webinars and presentations and information on upcoming Webinars.  Also, stay tuned for upcoming posts that feature a Q&A session with Foster, answering a number of the most frequently asked questions on video and email.

I recognize it’s a fairly trivial comparison, but if you think about it, there are many similarities between socks and emails.

For starters, socks are always getting lost. It seems like every time you turn around, another sock has decided to go AWOL on you. The same can be true for emails. Consumers are bombarded with emails, and in order for your email to get plucked from the crowd, it needs to stand out. Grab your consumer with a stellar subject line, or highlight content relevant to their interests – if you have the data, use it.

Also, when’s the last time you’ve seen someone’s socks and thought, “Omigod, where did you get those?!” Socks don’t get nearly the same amount of attention that their highly coveted counterpart, shoes receive. It’s because socks are not sexy. What about your email campaign? Is it interesting enough to grab your audience’s attention and have them begging for more? Well, maybe not begging, but at least move them to action. It’s a great success when an email engages its recipient to the point of action, and the ones that do this have something in common. They have a simple and clear message that’s relevant to the consumer and a call to action that stands out and is easily attainable.

Finally, what happens when you’ve been running around in your favorite tennis shoes for far too long?  Your socks start to stink, and you need to change ‘em up. This may be the case with your email program. If you gather the courage to take a step back and take a big whiff of your email program, you may find that, like your socks, your emails stink. It’s time to freshen up. Is the layout and design engaging, or is there more valuable content you can be providing your audiences? Look for ways to refresh and rejuvenate your emails, and you and your audience will be breathing easier in no time.

Ah, the world can get back to work – talking about the Super Bowl and Tiger Woods instead of speculating on the Apple tablet announcement.

The new device announced by Steve Jobs today, called the iPad, in simplest form is a large iTouch with additional features including the iBook ereader app. For email marketers, the iPad creates additional opportunities and challenges from a design perspective. From the Apple site:

See and touch your email in ways you never could before. In landscape, you get a split-screen view, showing both an opened email and the messages in your Inbox. To see the opened email by itself, you just turn iPad to portrait, and the email automatically rotates and fills the screen. No matter which orientation you use, you can scroll through your mail, compose a new email using the large, on-screen keyboard, or delete messages, with nothing more than a tap and a flick. If someone emails you a photo, you can see it right in the message. You can also save the photos in an email directly to the built-in Photos app. And iPad will work with all the popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.

On the challenge side, the iPad will have a text preview function that allows users to view what appears to be about the first 15-20 words of your email message. As with viewing email on mobile devices and clients with preview panes such as Outlook, optimizing your “preheader” copy and links will be key.

On the opportunity side, the user interface renders HTML emails with images extremely well, as does the iPhone and iTouch email app. So marketers incorporating large, or a number of images in their emails should expect a great experience for their subscribers who add an iPad to their portfolio of email-reading devices.

Stay tuned for more information about the iPad and how it will affect email marketers.

I recently joined Silverpop’s field marketing team and am focused on consumer marketing and email marketing best practices

If there’s one thing we as marketers we can all agree on, it’s that email marketing is a fast-paced industry where a new trend seems to emerge every time you turnaround. Therefore, I’ll be updating a regular post listing the trends I’m seeing in the marketplace. Without further adieu…

Video in email: The next great frontier?

Video in email is quickly becoming the next big idea in email marketing for 2010. Stepping out into this freshly carved out territory, last week we saw WhatCounts announced it will license and host software from Eyejot that converts popular video formats so they can be used in enterprise-class video email projects anticipated to be conducted by WhatCounts customers. Also on this front, Goodmail teamed up with Liveclicker and announced a “joint partnership to extend video email marketing to more consumers by adding Liveclicker’s video technology atop the Goodmail CertifiedEmail platform.” Silverpop will be hosting a Webinar with LiveClicker on Best Practices for Incorporating Video into Email on January 28. If you’re interested in attending, click here.

Acquisitions in the News

It would seem that some companies’ New Year’s resolution lists started with “Acquire that company we’ve been looking at for the last six months.” Acquisition announcements seemed to dominate my Google Alerts. To start things off, we have Harland Clarke, which announced it has acquired Protocol Integrated Marketing Services, the full-service direct marketing division of Protocol Global Solutions, as well as SubscriberMail, an email service provider and technology firm. As well as, Unica Corporation adding email deliverability management with the acquisition of Pivotal Veracity. It will certainly be in interesting year if this trend continues.

The year of the segmented emails?

There have been a few posts I have come across, which address best practices for segmenting email campaigns. In a time where consumers have the power to choose the messaging they want to hear, this is one of the smarter tactics an email marketer can implement. Why, you ask…well, according to the Email Experience Council, there are four benefits to segmenting:

1. Reduces inbox clutter
2. Increases relevancy
3. Earns trust
4. Gain credibility

What are the trends you’re seeing in the marketplace?

I know what mine is: opening a message from the airline I travel on frequently to see these magic words: “You’ve been upgraded to First Class!” Yeah!

I posted this question on Twitter and got a great response from Chris Wheeler of Bronto: “Congratulations! You’ve been promoted!”

While Chris was teasing, you can see a theme. An email message that’s destined to become a favorite adds an unexpected extra level of delight. It’s most emphatically not another expected free-shipping or 20-percent discount offer.

Instead, it’s an email you send to retain a customer, enhance the relationship or move it to a higher level of engagement. They can still say, “Buy this,” but in a subtle and logical manner.

Another favorite email shows how this can work: A friend received an email from one of her hotel loyalty programs. It told her she had been upgraded to its Gold level, even though she was a few points short of the required number.

Because she felt more like a valued customer, and because of the extra amenities this higher level gave her, she now makes more reservations with that company than with the other loyalty programs she uses.

So, the email persuaded her to spend more money, but in a manner consistent with her relationship and customer history with the company.

Of course, not every company has a loyalty program or the ability to upgrade customers to a higher status. But you can identify your most valued customers (or other segments) and “surprise and delight” them via email. Examples can include:

• Sneak previews/early access to sales
• Free access to paid-only content
• Notifications of status or usage, comparing you to other customers/users
• Random giveaways/upgrades to select customers
• Email-only offers
• Purchase anniversary or birthday special offers
• Thank-you messages with a special offer or access
• Useful tips that relate to a product purchase or download
• VIP event invitations
• Offer to test a new product

Now it’s your turn. What are your favorite email messages? More importantly, what email messages do you send that could become customer or subscriber favorites? Describe them in the comment box below, and if you have links to your content at your site, please include them.