“How often should I send to my list of subscribers?”

Campaign frequency is a subject that I’m asked about quite often and the answer to this question is always the same. It depends.

It depends on your audience, your product, your content, and your marketing goals. These elements ultimately determine “your” optimal frequency. It can be as often as weekly (rare), to as infrequent as twice a year (not a good idea), but it varies for every organization. So there must be a middle ground, right?

Yes, as a general rule, you want to “touch” your list at least once a month.

Strike a balance and set expectations:
Some marketers are concerned about mailing to their list too often, but we see many marketers not mailing frequently enough. The primary objective is to engage, keep your brand in the mind (inbox) of your subscribers, and provide relevant, timely content. Start with a well crafted welcome message to shake hands for the first time with your new subscriber, set expectations, and build anticipation for the next email.

Why is my list shrinking?
One problem with not sending frequently enough is the issue of “list attrition”. The reality these days is that people often change email addresses for a variety of reasons. Providing your subscribers with a mechanism and the opportunity to update their profile at least once a month will help minimize attrition. However, if you wait 3-6 months between campaigns, chances are some subscribers have moved on or forgotten they even signed up with you in the first place. If you notice a spike in your bounce metrics and a decrease in your open rates from your last campaign, chances are it’s the result of subscribers who have abandoned the email address they subscribed with or you’ve lost their interest.

High frequency? Proceed with caution:
The other side of the equation is sending too often, which can result in list fatigue and potential damage to your brand. So, if your strategy is to send 4-6 times a month, make sure you have a very engaged audience, compelling content, and you continually analyze your reporting metrics.

Three suggestions:
1.) Review your email marketing objectives and consider striking a balance when testing your frequency in an effort to keep your audience engaged and active.
2.) Always position an “edit your profile” or “edit your preferences” link prominently and consistently in the body of your message allowing your subscribers to update their profile.
3.) Consider segmenting your list and communicating to those who have specific needs or preferences.

Bottom Line:
An effective use of frequency depends upon your audience, the content you deliver, and the expectations you set.

This month we did a little shuffling of responsibilities at Blue Sky Factory, and I was asked to be the main contact for any Publicaster support issues.  While I loved speaking with each and every one of you, I realized there are some commonly asked questions that seem to come up over and over.  In an attempt to streamline the process, I’d like to go over a few of them here. 

I hope that this quick list of common support topics will help you as you use our Publicaster application.  Please do not take this as a hint that we don’t want to hear from you - we really do!  If you ever have questions about Publicaster or email marketing in general, we are here and excited to help!

Without further ado, here are the Top 5 Most Common Support Topics:

1. Your Mailing List Data File

When you are ready to import data into Publicaster, make sure your data file is in one of these formats: Comma Separated Value (.csv) or Text Tab Delimited (.txt).  The first row of your data must be the column headers (Email, Firstname, Company, etc).  These column headers must match what you have in your Publicaster database.  Go to List Manager > Manage Databases > Edit to see what field headers you currently have set up.  As an example, the column header in your data file for Email cannot be spelled “E-mail” or “e mail”.  Spaces and hyphens matter!

2. List Import and Manage Existing Data Counts

Once you have uploaded a list, Publicaster will show you a count of how many records were uploaded.  This count removes any duplicate or invalid records from your original data file.  By invalid record, we mean that Publicaster will check to make sure all email addresses are in the name@domain.com format.  Any email addresses that are not in this format will not be uploaded.  Here’s something new to look forward to: In Publicaster 7.0, you will be given more in-depth counts.  You will be shown how many invalid or duplicate email addresses were removed, and you’ll be able to click through to view those records not uploaded.

Once you’ve uploaded your list data, you can go to Manage Existing Data under List Manager to get Quick Counts on your list(s).  Note that these list counts include ALL records on your list, including Active, Hard Bounced, Opt-outs, etc.  If you want just a count of the Active records on your list (the ones that Publicaster will send emails to), change the Subscriber Status drop-down menu to “Active”.  Note that segmentation Quick Counts automatically give you only Active records, so be sure to keep this in mind when comparing segmentation counts to mailing list counts.  Also note that the Quick Count from the Send/Schedule Emails screen will always give you the Active count.

3. Using Personalization in Emails

You do have the ability to personalize your emails.  This is achieved by using snippet codes, just like you do for the Forward to a Friend and Opt-out links.  For example, if you want your email to read, “Dear (firstname)”, here’s how you would do that:

Dear [~Firstname~]

This would personalize your email for the recipient, as long as you have that “firstname” column in your mailing list and there is a valid first name associated with that recipient’s email address.  For any record that has an email address but not a first name, you can set a default value for this personalization.  You have the opportunity to do so once you’ve saved the email.  Hint: You can also use personalization in subject lines by simply typing the snippet into the subject line text box when setting up your email.

4. Sending and Scheduling Emails

When you go to the Send/Schedule Email screen under Launch/Manage Emails, you have the option to either Deliver Now or Schedule Delivery.  If you want to schedule an email for the future, remember to schedule it at least 15 minutes in advance.  Also, if you are sending a test email to your test list, be sure to choose your test mailing list from the Mailing List drop-down menu at the top of the page, and also to select “Yes” for the question at the bottom of the page, “Is this a test?”.  By selecting “Yes”, this will put the word “Test” in your subject line.  When selecting this option, you can also choose to send separate versions, which allows you to receive and review both the HTML and Plain Text versions of your emails.

 5. Reporting Metrics

The most commonly looked at metric is the Open Rate.  Opens are recorded only if images are downloaded.  (Note: this is an industry standard.)  This means that recipients can receive and read your emails without downloading images, and this would not count as an open.   Alternatively, if someone breezes by your email in their preview pane and has images turned on by default, this would count as an open, although the recipient may have barely glanced at your email.  Because of these two points, we typically recommend that you pay closer attention to your click-through rate.  This metric is much more accurate, since a click can only be recorded if your recipient physically clicks on the link.  This also shows that your call to action was effective and that the recipient is truly engaged in your emails.  And remember, the best way to gauge your email success is to compare yourself against yourself (not against others or the industry average).  Watch your own email metrics over time and try different things to improve upon them.  If you need suggestions for some A/B tests to run, contact your Account Manager directly.

Hopefully these tips will help you as you use Publicaster.  If you still need assistance, or just want to talk to a live person, we’d love to hear from you!  Please contact us at bsfsupport@blueskyfactory.com or 1-866-216-BLUE.  Until then, happy emailing!

I keep reading that social media is killing email marketing. And then I read how that just isn’t true.  This discussion will continue as we begin to see how the two will work together.  How they fit together today, will probably be different a year or two from now.

This debate made me reflect on the changes that have happened in email marketing since I began working in the field less than five years ago. While there have been numerous changes, there are a few theories that have drastically changed over the years.

Bigger is Better. It was a common belief that the larger your list, the better results you would receive. We know this isn’t true. Keeping your list clean is the best way to get the results that you want. Even better is segmenting your list to send targeted, relevant emails to your subscriber base.

Email is Cheap, Mail Often. Since email is so much more affordable than other marketing vehicles, people would send email out constantly. We know that sending email too often can cause list fatigue and increase your opt-out rate. Again, sending relevant messages, on a regular schedule that your subscribers expect, is your best bet.

Avoid SPAMMY Words. While there are still content filters and there are certain words (think Viagra) that will still get you blocked, content is not the only thing that affects your deliverability. More and more ISPs are moving to reputation filters. They will block emails from IP addresses that have too many complaints, unknown senders, etc. Building a good reputation will ensure your delivery.

We would be naïve to think that what is true in email marketing one day will be the same the following the year. In fact, that would be a bad thing. So embrace the changes. Keep on learning. Accept social media. It’s all good.

Technorati Tags: emailmarketing, socialmedia, trends, marketing

Last week, I blogged about how we set up our new subscription page on www.blueskyfactory.com.  This week, I’d like to go over how we set up our new welcome email.  Everything we did was set up using our Publicaster application, so Publicaster users should have no trouble mimicking what we did.

First, the nitty-gritty about how we set up this form and mailing list.  You’ll notice on our subscription page, we offer four different types of email publications - Factory Direct (our monthly e-newsletter), Blue Sky Factory Webinars, 52 Email Marketing Tips in 52 Weeks, and News & Press Releases.  The Publicaster opt-in form, however, only allows you to select one mailing list to have opt-ins added to.  To work around this, we created a master subscription list in our Publicaster account that this form was tied to.  We then set up each of the four publication types as database fields in our mailing list.  Anyone that checks off to subscribe to a particular publication on the form is given a value of “Yes” for that particular field in the master mailing list.

Since all the subscribers are in one master list and are categorized by a field within the mailing list, we’ll need to use a segmentation to launch an email campaign.  If, for example, we want to send an issue of Factory Direct, we’ll set up a segmentation that Includes Subscribers from the master subscription list and has the segmentation condition of “FactoryDirect” “Is Equal To” “Yes”.  This will pull all people from the master subscription list that checked off the box on the opt-in form to subscribe to Factory Direct.

Now, let’s talk about the welcome email.  We set up the opt-in form as a Notified Single Opt-in, which means all subscribers are sent an automatic welcome email.  It is a best practice to acknowledge and welcome your new subscribers within minutes of their subscription.  Your welcome email should be fairly simple.  It should (1) welcome your subscriber to your mailing list, (2) remind them again of the benefits of subscription, (3) outline the type(s) of emails they will receive and the frequency of each, (4) give them the option to change their subscription or opt-out completely, and finally (5) ask them to whitelist your email address to ensure proper delivery.  Check out our new welcome email here.  You’ll notice that all five of these points are covered.

Since we have four publication types, you’ll see that each is listed, along with a description of content and frequency.  Right under the description is a line that tells the recipient if they are currently subscribed to that publication or not.  Since the email types were all set up as database fields in the mailing list, this was really easy to do using a Publicaster snippet code.  As an example, in our Publicaster email, we included a line that read:

Subscribed? [~FactoryDirect~]

If the recipient was subscribed to the Factory Direct email, this would have read:

Subscribed? Yes

So that this line wasn’t left blank, we set up a default value so that it would read “No” if the recipient was not subscribed.  Right under the email descriptions, the recipient is invited to manage their account by visiting the subscriber preferences page.

And there you have it!  Now you have the tools to revamp your subscription process - all the way from your opt-in form and subscription page to the welcome email.  Please feel free to contact us or comment below if you have any feedback or questions.  If you are a current Publicaster user, please feel free to contact your Account Manager directly if you have any questions about setting up your own opt-in form or welcome email. 

Proceed with caution. Having worked with databases since 1990, I know the risks and the rewards associated with using an append file. Should you want to institute this approach to increase your email list, make sure to follow some simple but extremely valuable guidelines.

Keep the append list separate from your house list until it is thoroughly cleansed and tested. Research the vendor you will use to do the append for you to find out how do they obtain their data, how do they perform a match, how often they update their files, and how do they handle bounces, unsubscribes, and complaints. Also, make sure you only send active customers to the vendor for append purposes.

Spencer Kollas has written a very extensive and informative article on this subject, Use Caution When Adding to Your List. In addition to list appends he also details the risks and rewards of email list rental.

Keep in mind the quality of your list is very important to your brand. In trying to increase the quantity of your list you can lose quality if you are not careful.