April 17, 2007
SUMMARY: Renting a permission list for the first (or even third) time can be a bit confusing. What’s normal for transmission fees? How speedy is the turnaround? Should you pay extra for brand endorsement? Should you rent more names than the minimum to run a test? etc., etc.
Here’s a handy toolkit from MarketingSherpa to help you (also useful for training staff). Includes two sample contracts with key legalese noted, as well as a How to Read a Data Card PDF.
This MarketingSherpa Toolkit comes in three parts, each of which you can download as separate PDFs. (Note: If you share the word about this resource, please give folks the direct hotlink to this page. It will remain good for years to come.)
Part I: How to Read a Data Card
Every list on the market has an official “data card” for shoppers to review. The data card may be available online and also may be postal mailed to you. Although data cards from different managers can look slightly different, most share similar information.
It’s not everything you need to know to rent a list — but it’s enough to add the file to your “under serious consideration” pile. Discover what each part of the sometimes mysterious card means, and what critical questions you should ask in further research before making a buying decision:
How to Read a Datacard
Note: Yes, this is a real-life data card. We chose it fairly randomly and do not have an opinion as to the wonderfulness of the list it promotes.
Part II: Document of Legal Compliance
In addition to standard list rental contracts, some best-of-breed list owners and managers also distribute a Document of Compliance to elaborate on how their list gathering practices match the law and, most importantly, how they require your broadcast to be legal as well.
Laws are often shaded in gray until enough court cases define nooks and crannies of confusion. So just saying, “We obey the law and expect you to as well,” is not enough. It’s better to spell things out.
Most importantly, be sure to review the “Suppress File” information on page three. We recommend that no marketer or manager do rental business without agreeing to this.
Here’s the PDF link:
CAN SPAM Compliance Document
Note: The Document of Legal Compliance we chose for this exhibit is a real-life document from a list manager we regard quite highly. It’s extremely well worded, and we feel it could be taken as an example of best practices. That said, we’re not lawyers. If you’re considering signing a document or creating your own, please consult legal counsel first.
Part III: List Rental Contract
No one should ever rent you a list without requiring that you sign a contract first. Some things to be sure to look for in the fine print:
o Landing page requirements:
Is a hotlink to your privacy policy required on your landing page? It’s a best practice … however, in our experience many Web designers forget to put that link on landing pages or registration forms. Make sure you conform.
o Advertisement disclosure:
If the list owner wants to include language on your creative making it clear your broadcast is an ad, that’s fine and dandy. Except, the word “advertisement” may be filtered by content-based filters (especially a problem for B-to-B sends.) So, you may need to negotiate to a less problematic, albeit equally clear, word.
o Suppression list:
Are you ready to hand over your Do Not Email (DNE) list for suppression purposes? If you’re renting with a reputable firm you’ll be required to. However, you may be able to negotiate using a third party merge/purge house to run the suppression on your behalf as an intermediary if you are extremely concerned about security. Also, be sure to check your own privacy policy wording to be sure if you need to use that third party or if you can hand over the DNE list directly.
Here’s the PDF link:
List Rental Contract
(note: sample is as of April 2007)
Note: This real-life sample is one of the more thorough contracts around. Many are only one page long. Those are not bad at all — we chose this one because we wanted you to see the full realm of contractual possibility. If your legal team is cool with this, getting them to sign off on shorter contracts will be a breeze.
More Useful links related to this article:
Companion Sherpa Tutorial on renting email lists:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29930
List managers and brokers that assisted with this toolkit:
Bethesda List Center:
http://www.bethesda-list.com
DM2-DecisionMaker:
http://www.dm2decisionmaker.com
IDG List Services:
http://www.idglist.com
Millard Group:
http://www.millard.com
From Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29939
Posted by copiasolaris under How To's | Comments (0)
April 14, 2007
SUMMARY: If you think the world is oversaturated with newsletters on every subject imaginable, think again. Endless niches exist that publishers aren’t taking advantage of, says an exec who has helped develop newsletters for two organizations with millions of subscribers.
Why not? Although there are barriers to overcome, the results are worth it. Includes tips on building your list, advertising and content, analysis and segmentation and costs involved.
Rather than use an email newsletter as a marketing tool or as an add-on for existing customers and subscribers, a small group of publishers has made the newsletter itself the primary business and, as a result, turned it into a massive, ad-supported revenue machine. The idea seems simple: you build a huge list of opt-in email addresses, deliver relevant daily content and then offer ad space.
Some of the most successful companies in this market include BeliefNet, with 12.57 million subscribers, and LifeScript, with 6 million+. With the potential for each name to return double or quadruple the amount spent to acquire it, these businesses can have a quick path to profitability, says Sujay Jhaveri, CEO Flatiron Media, who spent time at Beliefnet and iVillage.
In fact, Jhaveri says the business model will become more compelling as the costs of other traffic-generating techniques, such as paid search, continue to increase. “Compare the two models. You just spent 50 cents to get someone to click on a search ad. Unless you do something with that person on the first visit, they’re gone and there’s no way of reaching out to them again. In the case of a newsletter, you’ve spent 50 cents to acquire a name with permission to send them content on a regular basis and drive them to your site. It’s a much more cost-effective model.”
So, why isn’t everyone pumping out mass-market newsletters?
For starters, a handful of significant (but surmountable) barriers exist — from staffing and infrastructure requirements to a savvy approach to analyzing email metrics. No worry, in our exclusive interview, Jhaveri offers tips to handle seven of the most critical issues in the newsletter business:
Tip #1. Steady supply of names
If you’re trying to create a standalone newsletter, you’ll need 500,000 to 1 million subscribers to attract attention from advertisers, Jhaveri says. The only way to get there is to work with consumer lead generation sites to collect opt-in names.
Working with companies such as Q Interactive, CoregMedia and Webclients, you can put a checkbox on a suite of websites where consumers can opt in to receive your content. Starting from zero seems daunting, but assuming that you have high-interest content with a broad target market, you can collect 1 million to 2 million names a month through such channels, he says.
But be prepared to pay for those names: each opt-in can cost between 40 cents to $1.00. Still, each dollar spent can return $2 to $4 in advertising revenue, says Jhaveri, and you can recoup your investment in as little as eight weeks.
Name acquisition remains a perpetual task to grow the business and replace lost names due to unsubscribes or hard bounces. Although Jhaveri says the rate of name attrition varies widely depending on the product, MarketingSherpa data has found that large lists experience 38% annual attrition.
To counter-act this, you must develop a consistent marketing plan to add new names based on those attrition rates and on the performance of different lists from different sources (more on this later). “You don’t want to add 5 million names this month and nothing next month.”
Tip #2. Appealing content
Obviously, the content has to be appealing to get people to opt in and open your newsletters. Fortunately, Jhaveri says it’s not hard to find a category or subject to tackle. Here are his suggestions on content development:
o Subjects with high interest to a large swath of consumers. Many successful newsletters tackle topics such as health, family, entertainment, food, fashion or beauty.
o Frequent delivery. A daily newsletter is the best model because it gives advertisers the most opportunities to put their offers in front of readers.
o Short, valuable content. Delivering something daily means you want to give subscribers small bites of information that they’re likely to open. Jhaveri suggests no more than 300 to 500 words. Those bites have to be appealing, though, so the most successful models usually employ a service or entertainment model (e.g., a health tip of the day, a daily recipe or a famous quotation).
Tip #3. Ad sales strategy
Once you have a list and a product, you need to attract advertisers to begin making money. Here are a few strategies for designing your advertising model:
- Balance the amount of content and advertising. There’s no formula for the right number of ads in a newsletter, so you’ll need to test a range of different sizes and placements. BeliefNet offers five ad sizes in four positions, for example.
Jhaveri says the 300 x 250 has been the best performing size for newsletters, but, depending on design, the addition of 728 x 90 banners and other smaller ads makes sense, too. You can also offer text ads to increase revenue without cluttering the page.
- Either build your own sales staff to sell ads or turn to an outside rep firm to handle sales for you. Startups likely will have to use an outside firm to sell ads while building their business, which means your margins will be lower.
But Jhaveri cautions that you need to have revenue in the millions of dollars annually, as well as the internal ability to support a sales organization, which not only requires a staff but management and other operational support.
- For companies with existing websites or other ad-supported products, newsletter ads can be sold separately or bundled with other placements. The right approach depends on the size and demographics of the newsletter audience and whether it offers different characteristics from your other products that would appeal to different advertisers.
Tip #4. Staff to prepare the newsletter
There is a host of ways to generate content, depending on the nature of the company developing the newsletter:
- Publishers with existing content on a website or in a print publication can repurpose it and push it out to a new list of subscribers in a newsletter.
- Companies without existing content can hire staff or freelancers to write newsletters.
- For health newsletters and other specialized subjects, publishers should license content from reputable sources.
- Free content is available for repurposing, too, such as books in the public domain or the Bible.
The cost of content development will vary depending on the model you choose, but Jhaveri says paying writers or licensing content won’t be a significant expense compared to other needs, such as name acquisition or infrastructure.
Still, this doesn’t mean you can just slap anything into a newsletter and expect the model to work. “Users can tell if they’re dealing with cookie-cutter content or something with unique value.”
Tip #5. Own your email infrastructure
Here’s where some of the bigger challenges arise. While it’s easy to create content and gather names, pumping out millions of emails a day is a different story. With the growing complexity of spamming regulations and individual ISPs’ anti-spam measures, you need an infrastructure and in-house, technical know-how to handle issues, such as throttling rules (how many messages can be sent per IP address in a given period of time).
For the most part, email service providers can’t handle the task — or can’t handle it affordably when you factor in the cost to send millions of messages. “Every ESP says they can offer a better deal, but, ultimately, you don’t want to have a significant piece of your cost structure in email delivery. You want to spend your money on your marketing expenses.”
This means you need to buy your own hardware and software, including:
- Mail transfer agent servers. These are used to send the emails, staggering mailings to handle issues such as ISP throttling rules and handling multiple sending IP addresses. Each unit, which costs $10,000-$40,000, can typically handle 500,000 to 1 million messages an hour. Vendors include StrongMail and IronPort.
- Campaign management software. This is the intelligence behind the system. It segments the database based on any number of factors, picks the right lists and right IP addresses, inserts the right creative and handles all the tracking and reporting tools.
Unfortunately, Jhaveri says, no off-the-shelf product does the job properly, which means custom development. “The more sophisticated you get, the more likely you’re going to have to build you own code.”
Tip #6. Deep analysis of email metrics
Owning a powerful database and tracking tools plays into what is perhaps the most important aspect of running a successful newsletter business: the ability to track data and analyze metrics.
Some of the analysis is fairly straightforward. You need to track basic metrics, such as deliverability rates, opens, clickthroughs, etc. The analysis gets trickier in relation to your marketing efforts.
One of the most important tasks is analyzing the quality of the names you’re acquiring so you can determine which co-registration sources are giving you the best results and which ones you should stop using. The idea is to keep track of how much you’re spending on names from different sources and then see how those names perform over a period of three to six months.
Here, you must be able to segment your list by acquisition source and the date you acquired the names to track and compare factors, such as:
o Open rates
o Clickthroughs
o Unsubscribe rates
o Ad revenue per list
o Payback rate
o Lifetime value
Tip #7. Manage offers
Besides helping determine sources of quality names, this kind of tracking also helps manage your offers to existing subscribers to maximize revenue potential or minimize list churn. “Ultimately, it’s about yield management. You’re trying to maximize the performance of every source you have rather than bundling all your names into one list.”
Here are a few examples of how to do that:
- For subscribers with low open rates, you might offer a weekly digest form instead of a daily email.
- Loyal openers and clickers might be a target audience for cross-selling opportunities, such as offers to subscribe to another newsletter or other promotions.
- If you learn that new names perform best in the first month, you can establish an automated, timed series of offers to go out to take advantage of the honeymoon period.
Useful links related to this article
Case Study on DailyCandy’s newsletters:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=23379
Special Report: Renting Email Lists – Costs, Deliverability & Targeting:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29930
CoregMedia:
http://www.coregmedia.com/coregistration.php
IronPort:
http://www.ironport.com/
Q Interactive:
http://www.qinteractive.com/
StrongMail:
http://www.strongmail.com/
Webclients:
http://www.webclients.net/
Beliefnet:
http://www.beliefnet.com/
Flatiron Media:
http://www.flatironmedia.com/
LifeScript:
http://www.lifescript.com/
From Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29934
Posted by copiasolaris under Interviews | Comments (0)
April 11, 2007
SUMMARY: Renting email lists can be tricky (think bad lists, CAN-SPAM and filtering). But here’s the good news: Three years ago, only 10% of rentals were deemed safe for reputable emailers, but that figure has nearly doubled because marketers are getting smarter and demanding cleaner, more targeted lists.
How do B-to-C and B-to-B marketers get their hands on a good list, and what are the best practices? In the first installment of a two-part series, we’ll tell you everything you need to know before sitting down with a broker.
Several attendees at last month’s MarketingSherpa Email Summit raised basic questions about list rentals. With search prices so high and email prices relatively steady, many marketers are taking another look at list rental. So, we figured it was time to research the topic again and talk to experts about the latest concerns.
There are plenty of email lists to choose from, and they cover just about every niche imaginable. From talking to several list brokers, the size of the industry is anywhere from 5,000 lists to 20,000. The B-to-B list rental business is healthy and centered on reputable publishers who still command value and trust. The B-to-C list industry is less organized, and many lists aren’t worth a dime. But if done properly, you can succeed.
“Marketers have gotten smarter at viewing email and list rentals as part of an overall mix rather than a golden-egg, end-all solution,” says Andrew Sambrook, VP Brokerage, IDG List Services. “What you are seeing now is an evolution of the medium. More and more people I deal with see it as one of the touchpoints they need to move someone progressively down the sales cycle.”
-> Step #1. What’s a list rental and what should you ask your list broker
First a definition: A list rental is the purchase of a third party’s email list for one-time use (unless negotiated otherwise). The emails are sent on your behalf using your creative and your subject line to a list of people who have knowingly signed up to receive email offers from the named list owner. Other points:
- You review the lists on the market by looking at their data cards. List managers and brokers include these on their sites. (In Part II, we’ll include sample data cards and show you how to read them.)
- This is not affiliate or co-registration (see hotlinks below for more on that).
- You never get access to the list of email names.
- The name of the company in the “From” line is the list owner’s, not yours.
- You and the list owner agree on the number of recipients and the send date/time.
- You forward the creative.
- Have the list run against your supression Do-Not-Email list (see CAN-SPAM below).
- The list owner sends from their server.
If you haven’t rented before, be sure to not only research which list brokers are best for your niche, but also request tests and negotiate for the best trial prices. Plus:
o You have to be experienced at measurement if you want to be successful at renting
o You have to be good at measuring lifetime customer value
-> Step #2. Lists that work best, plus costs to rent them
Before testing a list — much less renting one — ask who else has been renting the list in continuation to get a feel for what marketers are having success with the brand and if it makes sense for your brand. Look for marketers with good direct response reputations who repeatedly use the list. They must be seeing decent metrics on the back end.
“You never know how many emails are going to break through the clutter,” says Elizabeth Arnold, Associate Marketing Manager with Rand McNally, who has tested B-to-B lists to generate leads for their mapping/locator API. “You have to make sure it’s targeted. Small lists are usually better.”
You’ll hear a lot of different pricing numbers out there (and we’ll address this more thoroughly in Part II of this Special Report), but for the time being, let’s state that targeted consumers lists are running anywhere from $90 to $160 per thousand names (CPM). Prices range from $65-$125 per thousand names for larger, aggregated databases.
For B-to-B, lower-end aggregated small business or opportunity seeker lists start around $75 per thousand. The higher-end lists targeting controlled circ publications and taking aim at specific groups, such as CFOs, can run as high as $300 per thousand names.
Make sure you’re renting lists that are double opt-in (emails are gathered, but rather than added to the list immediately, the names are sent a secondary email requiring a response to opt in to the list). To be completely sure:
o You may want to check the opt-in form personally to be sure it’s clear.
o Sign up for the list yourself and watch what else you get.
-> Step #3. Deliverability and CAN-SPAM considerations
Anyone marketing with a rented list — especially heavy emailers — needs to ask the list owner/broker to run a suppression file. In short, suppression files remove records from a database that are no longer accurate or current, or a name and address that one has an obligation to remove.
More specifically, for both CAN-SPAM and branding concerns, you have to ask the list owner to run their names against your “Do Not Email” file and “Unsubscribe” file.
MarketingSherpa also advises that you provide two kinds of opt-out links for campaigns involving rented names: a regular unsubscribe button and a “Do Not Email” option.
The difference between the two is that unsubscribes get scrubbed from *your* list, while people getting placed into the Do Not Email file represent a faction who haven’t joined your list in the first place. You need to have the mechanism in place to act on their request that they do not want to hear from your brand via email. You do not have the right-of-way to email them more than once simply because you paid for their name.
You also have to include a physical street address at the bottom of your creative to keep in accordance with CAN-SPAM. And, make sure to have the time/date stamps for all of the rented addresses at your disposal. The good news is that these types of datapoints are becoming more granularly available.
“When a recipient complains, what you should do is go back to that record and find out where that person opted in,” says Rob Fitzgerald, VP Interactive Division, Walter Karl. “And you can say, ‘On April 5th at 2:30 p.m., you might not remember, but you opted in to receive third-party information.’ You can validate what you are doing.”
Another tip: give a staffer the subtitle of “Reputation Manager” to keep an eye on blacklists and abuse email groups. He or she should check these weekly if not daily, while also keep watch of both partners’ and competitors’ campaigns by opting into all of their programs. They also should keep separate email files for each partner and/or competitor, vetting affiliates’ campaigns to make sure they are maintaining best practices. You cannot wait for your prospects to complain.
And, of course, your offers have to be relevant to what they opted in for; otherwise, your message is going to be treated by the recipient as junk and your reputation will suffer. Other suggestions:
- Watch to see if the list owner switches IP addresses
- Set up dummy mailboxes to catch junk
- Verify the original point of name collection
-> Step #4. Creative that works best
Do not assume that your top-performing house email creative will test well with a rented file. In fact, Sherpa recommends that you develop completely separate creative for your acquisition campaigns. Many marketers new to renting will test their best campaigns on a rental, see crappy results and say, “Whoa, rentals don’t work!”
Not necessarily.
Remember that the recipients are in a different point in the relationship than your past customers — they are brand-new to you! And do not hold the belief that since you are a well-known brand (if that’s the case) that the identity will equate into an automatic email relationship. Email relationships have to be established on their own.
For introductory campaigns, use benefit-driven copy (as opposed to offer-driven copy, which works better for your house file). You want to give them an idea of who you are.
Most consumers and businesses are a little afraid of getting hoodwinked online, so give them evidence that suggests credibility. For instance, use an “About Us” box on your landing page to say, “Here’s who we are and what we offer.” Or, tell them if you have 2 million repeat customers or have been in business 17 years.
In short, establish “trust points.” If the list owner comes from a high-trust brand, mention “as recommended by Business 2.0” or “brought to you with permission from Business 2.0″ on the landing page.
-> Step #5. Measurement and considerations when conducting a list rental test
You don’t know how bouncy the list really is — because we can only truly measure hard bounces. For instance, 97% delivery rates don’t take into account the number of emails going into filters. So, the only certain way of accurately assigning value to the list is to look at the opens, clickthrough rates and what percentages of those numbers are converting to sale in your test.
“There are thousands of email lists on the market, but less than 20% of them [B-to-C and B-to-B together] are worthwhile,” says Josh Perlstein, President Response Media, a list brokerage firm. “It’s important to test, and it’s key that you use single-source lists or transparent-source.”
And, don’t be afraid to ask a broker how many names on a list should equal 100 clicks. That equation can take you a long way in the test assessment. Then, do the math to determine what results meet your criteria.
Generally speaking, if you run a test for 5,000 names, you can’t always be sure about the trial’s accuracy. It’s not exactly earth-shattering news, but the fact remains that a minority of less-than-above-the-board list owners/brokers might quietly send your test campaign to 10,000 in order to raise the response rate and get you on board for a huge buy. (Of course, no list company that we would be caught dead speaking to.)
Also ask if the list has a recency selection. Recency makes a big difference in response rates. Many list owners don’t charge extra for this, but it’s often not on the formal rate card. Plus, only 25% of lists offer recency.
Really large list buys can contain names already in your house file. Both B-to-C and B-to-B publishing marketers should be especially wary of paying for those names.
“Certain lists — we’ll see up to 40% duplication,” says Nicole Delma, Email Marketing Coordinator, Conde Nast. “We often request a sample in order to run a test. Or we will have a third-party vendor run a check of our list against theirs, and that will help us with the pricing. When we do go to a third-party vendor, the reason is because there’s a code or a demographic that we do not collect in our database.”
4 Specific B-to-C Tips
Tip #1. Study all of the possible demographic segments and values — because it can be a lot like car sales in that they will try to sell you a lower-valued demo and mark them up. If you overpay, you’ll lose the profitability.
Tip #2. Give yourself enough time to get at least three to five quotes.
Tip #3. Try to rent from marketers who don’t email more than twice a week.
Tip #4. Advertisers need to know where the addresses originated from. Find out where the names are collected URL by URL. Know what they opted in for.
4 Specific B-to-B Tips
Tip #1. There are more opportunities for more targeted lists than there were just a few years ago. You can target the IT market by renting CIO Magazine’s list, as just one example.
Tip #2. Don’t be surprised to see a list deal where you also have to buy a webinar and a space ad. Such arrangements may or may not be in your favor.
Tip #3. Take note of domain name expirations in the news (publications/vendors/software firms) and scrape them from your campaigns.
Tip #4. Selects are still important, but don’t forget about source. You can tell a lot about the potential effectiveness of a file by looking at the source.
Useful links related to this article
Past Sherpa articles on email list rental:
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=2331
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=204
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29333
Past Sherpa co-reg reports:
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=2281
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=2281
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=2283
IDG List Services
http://idglist.com/
Response Media:
http://responsemedia.com/home.asp
Walter Karl:
http://www.walterkarl.com
Conde Nast:
http://www.condenast.com
Rand McNally:
http://www.randmcnally.com
From Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29930
Posted by copiasolaris under How To's | Comments (0)
March 29, 2007
SUMMARY: We’ve been tracking Travelocity’s email programs for quite some time. For years, they’ve been known as a company that really does best practices in email.
Which is why we touched base to see what’s working for them now … because if Travelocity’s doing it now, you can bet that others will be following suit a year from now. Includes segmentation, a subject line test and creative samples.
Segmenting files and sending to fewer people — it’s a trend we’re seeing many marketers do these days, and we heard numerous Case Studies on the subject at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit earlier this month. And they’re segmenting for good reason. Every year, without fail, the most highly rated tactic for email marketing is segmentation.
In the last 4 1/2 years, Paul Briggs, Director, Customer Loyalty and Marketing, Travelocity, has overseen the evolution of his daily email program go from cross-file blasts of 2 million-3 million to highly segmented messages. In fact, one email program now goes to only 50,000-60,000 names.
For the past 18 months, Briggs has been all about taking his customer/subscriber email to the next level. “We had to work on deal-finding strategies for our customers. What drops in price warrant an email message? Twenty dollars on a domestic trip might be interesting to some, but it’s not going to be if you are traveling to London.”
Obviously, price plays a big part in his team’s actions, “but in the end, we also had to do a better job of [using email] to deliver both prices and a customer experience that will create loyalty.”
They learned years ago not to overmail and damage lifetime value of members. The prevailing strategy behind two of their highest ROI-performing email programs was to let current and new shoppers dictate what type of messaging they would receive in terms of information on flights, hotels and car rentals. Here’s what they’ve learned:
-> Program #1. “Low Fare Alert”
In a pilot program, they discovered the name they preferred — Good Day to Buy — didn’t resonate with consumers, so they externally marketed the emails as “Low Fare Alerts.” After signing up on the home page, customers receive flight offers from top destinations when they fall 20% below the recent 30-day average.
Such triggers occur after the system pulls the prices from 30,000 origin and destination markets and puts them into a data warehouse, which also includes information on customers.
Then, the following customer activities are cross-referenced in the program’s rules:
- if they fly weekly/monthly/quarterly
- if they fly international/domestic/both
- if they buy travel packages, including hotels and car rentals
Briggs’ goal is to marry pricing, timing, relevancy and activity to create a winning hybrid. Each day, they send about 50,000-60,000 Low Fare Alerts. “We thought the emails would be compelling because of the low prices and they would be relevant because the person had shopped from that origin.”
Without question, the customer-controlled email programs is allowing Briggs and his team to better target their audience. The initiative has consistently converted sales anywhere from eight to 12 times higher than less-relevant offers.
“As we’ve expanded our efforts to tell customers that it’s not only relevant to you, but also a better price today than yesterday, we’ve seen conversions go up,” he says. “We threw it out the door — so to speak — without much A/B blind testing, but its performance has been great.”
-> Program #2. FareWatcher
Since airlines change their fares as much as twice a day, Briggs is continually tweaking their FareWatcher alert, which sends an email whenever a fare to a certain destination changes by an amount that the member specified. Example: a New Yorker wanting to travel to Chicago would receive an email only if the fare drops by $25 or to $200 total.
FareWatcher tracks up to five origin-destination combinations. The prompts could be received via RSS feeds or a downloadable desktop toolbar. The system also recognizes the user’s IP address and accordingly serves deals to repeat visitors in a labeled FareWatcher box on the home page.
Email messages address recipients by name, informing them, “The price has changed for 1 of the FareWatcher routes you asked us to track. We recommend that you check availability now, as low fares like these tend to change quickly and sell out fast.” A box appears in the middle of the email, deducting the old price from the new one while showing the savings.
“And we put in contact rules that say you cannot get email for seven to 14 days, depending on the situation,” Briggs says. “We don’t want our customers getting email every day.”
Because they started experiencing complaints due to inventory evaporating as fast as the offers went out, Briggs set both the FareWatcher and Low Fare Alerts systems so any flight ticket over 60% off would be pulled to alleviate customer disappointment.
“Those price points are not viable for us to offer in an emailed message,” he says. “We’re also validating that the offer is in the market by regular checks with the airlines.”
FareWatcher isn’t far behind the Low Fare Alerts program in performance. If anything, its role on the home page has made it extremely important to the Travelocity brand. People are very receptive to finding the messages in their in-box.
“We have seen open rates north of 40%,” Briggs says. “And that’s not taken from the best two days — that’s a good hard average. Conversions are high, too.”
The price-validation system they added has definitely eased customer complaints about being teased with incredibly low offers.
-> Subject line test
Four years ago, Briggs told us that he was turned off by the words ‘Hot Deals, ‘Free’ or ‘Special.’ Testing and focus group studies had shown it was best to keep subject lines honest. That’s why they focus on price so much (it helps open rates), but they wondered: might other words help? So, they tested adding the word ‘Exclusive’ immediately in front of the dollar amount.
The result? “We found that where you put the terms of the offer affects open rates,” Briggs says. “While pricing in subject lines sells, the word ‘Exclusive’ was powerful when placed before the price.”
Useful links related to this article
Creative samples from Travelocity’s Email Alerts
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/travelocity/study.htm
Two-part Sherpa interview with Travelocity’s Paul Briggs:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=23031
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=23040
Premiere Global Services Inc. - helps Travelocity manage their email
campaigns:
http://www.premiereglobal.com/
Teradata - takes care of data warehousing for the travel site:
http://www.teradata.com
Travelocity:
http://www.travelocity.com
From Marketing Sherpa
https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29912
Posted by copiasolaris under Interviews | Comments (0)
January 21, 2007
It’s pretty darn easy to set up shop as an email service provider. Get a mail server, license some software, whip up a Web site, and you’re in business. (Of course that doesn’t mean you’re any good at it.)
During 2001, that’s exactly what plenty of people did because, aside from search marketing, email was one of the few online businesses that was booming. Loads of eager clients hoped to save money by replacing postal mail with email, and very few knew exactly which penetrating questions to ask a would-be vendor.
Then from 2002-2004, a merger and acquisition frenzy took place. Big fish ate small fish; small fish got venture funding for roll-up strategies; and faced with unexpected competition, some vendors disappeared completely.
In 2005, the remaining estimated 65 firms worked frantically to:
- stabilize, hire and train their staff;
- handle an explosion of incoming clients (some gained hundreds of client accounts in 2005 alone);
- develop specialized services to compete in particular niches;
- add on extra bells and whistles ranging from strategic consulting to high-end dynamic content to lift their prices out of commodityland;
- educate clients to avoid all-too-common newbie mistakes;
- and, ensure deliverability in an increasingly difficult ISP landscape.
Yes, you could call it a high-stress industry. And we’ve heard from many ESP leaders that they expect another round of M&A and marketing wars to occur in 2006 until the industry is boiled down to a few main leaders. The word for 2006 is “consolidation.”
Excerpt from Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3132
Posted by copiasolaris under ESP History | Comments (0)
January 13, 2007
SUMMARY: As the Internet continues to radically change the book publishing industry, authors are taking it upon themselves to promote their works in whatever ways possible.
See how one author turned his collection of marketing stories into a best-seller with a shrewd and inexpensive do-it-yourself campaign using email, a video-linked press release and cross-promotions with other prominent authors and speakers to add a viral element. Best of all, the whole effort took only two weeks to launch.
Plus, how he managed to sell out the book’s first run and is now charging lots more for his speaking gigs.
CHALLENGE
“Being able to put ‘#1 Best Seller’ in your marketing is absolutely big,” says Dan Seidman, author of ‘Sales Autopsy: 50 Post-mortems Reveal What Killed the Sale.’ “One, it helps sell the actual books in the stores. Two, it aids you in selling your future books to the publisher. That’s why I needed to somehow, someway get the book on an important list.”
Considering the number of books released every week, the task of cutting through the competition is not small. And, due to some late-arriving creative materials and other mishaps, Seidman had to scramble to get his campaign ready after the October release of his new book, “Sales Autopsy.”
Still, Seidman knew he could capitalize on the modest success of his previous book, as well as on columns he had written in marketing publications. His notion of building a linking system with other authors would be rewarding … if he could get them interested.
However, one of Seidman’s top priorities: He wanted to spend no more than a few thousand dollars to promote the book. Could such a small amount of money compete against the bigger publishing houses’ million-dollar media campaigns?
CAMPAIGN
Although Seidman’s publishing house, Kaplan Publishing, did some marketing for the book, it wasn’t anything like the media blitz seen with major book releases. Armed with a list of contacts assembled from speaking and networking at trade events, Seidman wanted to reach out to other sales gurus who might be interested in cross-promotions.
He decided to employ an affiliate-styled system and went to work on getting other marketers, authors and speakers signed up for his plan. Here are the four steps he took:
Step #1. Build list of experts and send emails
First, Seidman hired an assistant to deal with online market research, answer the phone/email and other tasks. For the book’s release during the first week of October, they wrote a press release that included a link to a video presentation by Seidman.
After that, they pored through industry resource guides from organizations, such as the National Speakers Association, to unearth experts who might be interested in partnering for a promotional email.
Seidman followed up some of the emails with calls to help close on new partnerships. A few turned him down, but most listened to the pitch. To those who gave him a chance, Seidman detailed his concept of an ongoing cross-promotional relationship in which the experts helped each other advertise their writings, speaking engagements and other products/services (see example below).
In addition, partners were offered the possibility of making a sales cut off his book via their Web sites, which could be tied into the affiliate program at Barnes & Noble’s Web site, http://www.BN.com.
Step #2. Create publicity campaign
Next, Seidman hired a design specialist to develop the look and feel of his email campaigns and manage the Web site. For email, they went with a layout that included a dominant image of the front cover, a smaller picture of him speaking, several positive quotes from critics and excerpts.
Seidman and his team also created a special Halloween email promotion that incorporated images appropriate for the holiday. In addition, they kept the same design for the landing pages for both emails.
Step #3. Email the list
Seidman pieced together a list of 12,000 qualified email addresses. He accrued many of them over the years while others came from research and renting small files.
Nearly two weeks after the release, they emailed the list to promote the 192-page “Sales Autopsy.” Recipients were offered a 20% discount, as well as a free downloadable PDF or audio files from the experts who had signed onto his partnership program.
Email recipients were driven specifically to BN.com to buy the book, a measure to help those partners who were running affiliate programs.
Step #4. Leverage past exposure
Seidman wisely used a handful of past accomplishments in marketing the book. For example, he already had a print/online audience of 2 million readers due to regular contributions for publications such as Agent’s Sales Journal, Advantages Magazine, Leader’s Edge and Health Industry Underwriter, as well as jobs portal Monster.com.
He had also released a book in 2002 called ‘The Death of 20th Century Selling.” While not a top seller, the book created a buzz in the community. In addition, Seidman had written a 24-part comic-book series called ‘The Sales Comic Book’ and produced a video game called ‘Revenge of the Reps.’ The latter two are usually given away as promotions when he speaks at trade shows.
“Things like the comic book and video game have differentiated me from the rest of the marketplace,” he says. “They’ve let everyone know that I am not like all the other authors or speakers.”
RESULTS
Well, something resonated with Seidman’s audience, because ‘Sales Autopsy’ shot to #4 on BN.com’s best-seller list for all books (sharing time with Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s highly-publicized memoirs) and sat at that spot for three days — Oct. 18, 19 and 20. What’s more, the book spent those same three days rated as the #1 business book available online at Barnes & Noble.
The video-linked press release and the initial recruitment email drew 22 author/speaker partners who went on to inform their opt-in databases. In the end, more than 700,000 recipients found a message about the book in their inboxes, and around 300,000 of those addresses were tapped again for the Halloween campaign.
Best of all, Kaplan Publishing sold out the initial 15,000-run in less than a month, and another 6,000 were sold in November.
“Someone told me that they saw my book at a Barnes & Noble in their city the other day, and it was still in the section for [store-recommended] business books,” Seidman says. “Because of the performance of this book, I think I have either tripled or quadrupled the advance I’ll receive for my next one. It has also allowed me to raise my speaking engagement fees by 67%.”
Not too shabby for an investment of less than $3,000.
Useful links related to this article
Creative samples from “Sales Autopsy” book launch:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/salesautopsy/study.ht
l
Martin Group - the company that handled the email and Web design for the book:
http://the-martin-group.com/
Dynamic Destinies Inc. - the company that helped with the affiliate strategy for the book:
http://www.destinies.com/authors.cfm
DSM Agency - Seidman’s publishing agent:
http://www.dsmagency.com/
Kaplan Publishing Inc.:
http://www.kaplanpublishing.com
Sales Autopsy:
http://www.salesautopsy.com
From Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=29834
Posted by copiasolaris under Case Studies | Comments (0)
July 1, 2006
SUMMARY: MarketingSherpa is pleased to be the first to bring you new study results from a 2006 survey by PartnerCentric.
Discover what 1,041 affiliates — including marketing partners for The Company Store, FootSmart, Domestications, National Geographic, LifeScript and ClubMom — say are the biggest challenges holding them back in 2006.
Surprise: bigger commissions were not the biggest want. Most affiliates just want better landing pages from you… more details here, including a hotlink to the 16-page PowerPoint:
As MarketingSherpa has reported for more than six years now, the biggest problem with affiliate and CPA marketing has always been the merchant-affiliate relationship.
You’d think they’d get along. 9-40% of typical online merchants’ sales are affiliate driven, and 100% of the affiliate’s business is dependent on third-party offers. Yet like marketers and resellers in many industries, distrust runs rampant.
This February and March, affiliate marketing consultancy PartnerCentric (formerly Affiliate Goddess) set out to help resolve part of the communication gap. They convinced 16 merchants, ranging from financial services such as USA Dental Care to apparel shops such as International Male, to send out an affiliate survey.
A grand total of 1,041 affiliates responded, with average monthly revenues in the tens of thousands. These ranged from coupon sites to paid search advertisers and niche content sites.
You can scroll below to download a 16-page PowerPoint on the results. In the meantime, here is MarketingSherpa’s take on the data:
Classic Online Ads Currently Dominate
Two years ago, if you’d asked affiliates for the primary ways they promoted programs, the top two answers would have been search marketing and email marketing. Thanks to increasing search marketing competition and email privacy concerns, neither of these made the top answers for early 2006.
Instead, affiliates’ most used tactics were:
Text links 19.88%
Banners 18.80%
Content 18.40%
Wow, did anyone expect banners to make such a comeback? Partially this can be explained by the fact that the largest chunk of respondents — 44.5% — were themselves niche content sites. The second-biggest group was coupon and discount shopping sites at 26.9%. The smallest groups were freebie sites (0.7%)and bloggers (0.6%).
This indicates to us that the nature of successful affiliates has changed somewhat from salesmen-without-brand-names (email promo list owners, SEM specialists) to branded sites.
And, in turn it indicates the nature of the customer driven through affiliate marketing may have changed somewhat as well. Instead of a what-the-heck click on an ad served by whomever, they are more likely to be clicking on a “we recommend” link on a trusted site. This means the consumers may be more likely to convert. However, they also are more likely to stay loyal to the brand they came from rather than going direct to a merchant in future.
We’d love to see some data on this. Unfortunately, very few merchants have tracked the quality and loyalty of their affiliate-driven traffic over many years (too few, in fact, track it now.)
Affiliates name their biggest marketing challenges:
Nope, contrary to many merchants’ expectations, “commissions/payout” was the LEAST named challenge by affiliates. So, yes, affiliate marketing is *all* about the money. The affiliates themselves are smart enough to know increased commissions won’t help them the way other factors can.
Biggest problem? Bad conversions. 441 respondents (27.04%) said they wished merchants could improve everything from landing pages to checkout processes so the clicks they sent would convert into cash. “We’re sending you good shoppers,” the affiliates seem to be saying, “but then you’re lousing it up on your end.”
Next biggest problem: merchant inaccuracies, such as outdated coupons and data feeds at 17.78%. Again, the affiliate is sending a perfectly good click over, but your product or special offer isn’t there anymore to convert them.
If you are a merchant more on the 9% of the affiliate-driven-revenue pie slice, we bet you don’t dedicate as many resources to keeping up your data feeds and promotional info for partners as you should. Which in turn means you may slip to 5%-8% next year … all the while convinced by the data that affiliates aren’t any good so it’s not worth investing in.
It was nice to see that 8% of affiliates said they had no challenges at all. (Awfully confident bunch though, huh?)
What would help affiliates generate more business? Results
When asked what merchants could do to help affiliates generate more business … well then, yes, 24.67% said a higher commission would be nice. This makes sense for the search and other paid advertisers in the crowd who simply can’t afford certain media buys (or arbitrage) without a certain amount of back-end.
So, if you want to in essence pay more for media, these affiliates are more than willing to buy it for you.
However, commissions were only answer #3. Top of the wish list at #1 was “more content”.
In fact 30.02% of affiliates said if merchants would only hand over more articles, reviews, etc, they could place that content on their sites and generate clicks for you from it. The great thing is, content *is* essentially free. And you don’t have to ask your IT team for help. Often a little extra copywriting time per week can work wonders for your program.
Second hit on the wish list — 25.09% wanted better datafeeds and coupons. This makes sense given what challenges affiliates said they were having with non-updated feeds currently.
Only 15.40% wanted more training, and we suspect these are the newer, less profitable affiliates. That’s not to say they won’t be profitable or big someday. However, there’s such a mountain of training material available online for affiliate marketers, that we suggest you license the best of it, add an icing of specifics for your niche to the cake and then offer it to promising new affiliates to help them along.
After all, growing your own super affiliates is probably easier than convincing any more of the roughly 125 true super affiliates to come be your programs’ best friend.
Answers: What would motivate you quickly to promote a merchant’s program?
If you’re counting on affiliates to serve as your best recruiters for more affiliates, this is where commissions are king. 21.66% would recruit more affiiates if you gave them a VIP commission rate.
However, instead of forking over more cash, you could just fork over the same old cash only more quickly. 16.62% of affiliates would eagerly recruit others if you agreed to pay on a weekly basis. In addition 15.72% would be thrilled if you offered wire transfers and/or direct deposits instead of mailing checks. 12.77% said they would like guaranteed payments through a 3rd party; but only 5.24% were impressed by the idea of an advance on the first commission check.
So motivation is less about immediate money than it is about ensuring consistent cash flow. After all affiliates are running a business, too, with plenty of regular bills that have to be paid on time. Without consistency, they are lost.
Final note — only 1.2% said they’d be motivated by “good products.” So, no matter how proud you are of your new whiz-bang offering, the affiliate just wants to know can you be trusted to send funds consistently. If you can, they’ll consider marketing you and telling their friends to do so as well.
How often should you communicate with affiliates?
Although many affiliates are fed up with bad data feeds (see above), they don’t yearn to hear from you frequently *unless* you have something new to announce that affects them.
Think: You are one of many merchants competing for their attention. They are running a (probably) small business. They are insanely busy trying to make a buck on a smaller margin than you may allow your in-house marketing staff for new accounts. They don’t want to be your friend. They don’t want to buy into the glories of your brand.
Brand and relationship marketing, such as regular chirpy newsletters, are how you should be reaching out to consumers to increase loyalty. When it comes to affiliates, just get them the updated information they need to get their jobs done.
No happy talk, just the facts please.
Which may in itself explain part of the communication gap between merchants and affiliates. Merchants are used to *marketing* themselves to the world. Affiliates in the end don’t want to be marketed to.
Instead, they want regularly updated tools to maintain and improve their results. That, plus a consistent cash flow will make them your best friend.
Useful links related to this article:
Download your copy of the 16-page formal results PowerPoint here:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/amscr2006/study.html
PartnerCentric
http://www.partnercentric.com
From Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=28526
Posted by copiasolaris under How To's | Comments (0)
June 26, 2006
SUMMARY: Gorgeous Web site design, compelling testimonials and pages of scientific fact can only do so much. Many consumers — especially women researching healthcare options — won’t trust you enough to purchase on their first visit.
But, they might opt in for “10 Tips” via email.
Hear how one marketer tested an autoresponder series for new opt-ins. The campaign worked … until email filters started crushing delivery rates. Next, he tested in-house vs outsourced email delivery options.
See creative samples & discover test results:
CHALLENGE
“On so many sites, they try to sell you snake oil to lower blood pressure. They promise their supplements can,” says Ophir Prusak, Internet Marketer for InterCure Inc., makers of the RESPeRATE device.
When many of your competitors hawk products online as convincingly as possible that may not work, it pollutes the entire marketplace, seeding distrust.
Prusak and the Web team did the best they could to combat this. The site is cleanly and beautifully designed, featuring loads of testimonials, pages of scientific data, and “As Featured In” logos from such publications as The Washington Post, AARP and The Wall Street Journal. Plus, they promoted a “Save $45 Today” discount offer on the home page. Last but not least, the 800 number was manned 24/7.
Also, Prusak carefully restricted his media buys to highly trusted brand names, such as ads in respected mainstream medical email newsletters for consumers.
However, many visitors were leery, having seen nearly equally trustworthy-looking content at other sites.
CAMPAIGN
Prusak figured, if the site couldn’t convince consumers immediately, how about an ongoing educational effort via email? The campaign had three stages:
Stage #1. Gather opt-ins
Prusak added an opt-in offer to nearly every page of the site so no matter where you were when you decided to convert, the form was right there. The form used five best practices:
A. Copy: Instead of saying “Sign up for email” (which hardly anyone wants to do on a strange site) the headline read “Get 10 Tips to Lower Blood Pressure”, a benefit all visitors were likely to be interested in.
B. Form: The form was a form — not a hotlink to another page with a form — so people could sign up right away without any additional steps.
C. Submit button: Instead of saying “subscribe” which has taken on negative undertones for some markets (smells like a longer term relationship than new visitors may want), the nice fat button read “Submit”.
D. Usage clarity: Although the main offer was to receive tips via email for 10 days, Prusak intended to also these names a monthly newsletter until they opt-ed out or went inactive. Rather than assume permission for this, his copy carefully detailed it.
“In addition to 10 tips on lowering blood pressure, you’ll also receive occasional updates about RESeRATE.”
E. Privacy: Although RESeRATE’s site had a privacy policy posted at the bottom of every page, Prusak added privacy language and a hotlink to the email form as well so visitors could not miss it.
“Your email address is totally secure and will NEVER be shared, sold or rented. Privacy Policy.”
Stage #2. Create compelling and trustworthy content
With help from the rest of the marketing and product management team, Prusak developed the content for the 10 autoresponder messages that would begin the relationship. (Link to samples of all 10 below.)
Key — Almost none of the content was repurposed from the content-heavy site. “We’d rather give them something valuable than repacking information.”
Plus very little of the copy was a sales pitch. In fact, most wasn’t about the product at all. “It’s practical, helpful tips, for instance are you accurately measuring your blood pressure?” In addition, many of the hotlinks were not to RESeRATE’s site! Instead hotlinks were to respected brands such as the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association. “We’re showing that all of our information is from a respected source.”
At the very bottom of each message, Prusak posted the headline for “Tomorrow’s Tip” to keep interest high. He also had a simple involvement device with hotlinked “Yes/No answers, “Was this tip helpful for you?”
Stage #3. Fight deliverability battles
“About six months ago, we had a snowball effect,” says Prusak. The site had been live since 2002, but now at last it hit critical mass in terms of traffic and email opt-ins. Which was exciting, but suddenly more and more people started contacting RESPeRATE to complain that they had not received all 10 of their tips.
On the one hand, Prusak was thrilled they valued the content enough to care. On the other hand, he despaired that email filters were trashing his mailings.
All email had been broadcast using top-line software run on an in-house server. “Our email systems were very robust.” First Prusak signed on with an email certification service to see if that would help with delivery. It definitely did, but wasn’t a magic bullet to solve all delivery problems.
“Our core competency isn’t sending out email,” Prusak decided. “Maybe we should outsource this to a company that focuses on this.” However, the in-house systems were highly integrated into Web analytics and a lead tracking CRM system. The cost of time, energy, and cash to integrate an outside ESP into the same systems would be more than the CEO would happily sign off on without a lot of persuasion.
How do you convince a CEO to spend more money on email?
Although he realized he’d need a fairly high-end vendor in the end, Prusak didn’t want to invest his time and energy into researching options until he had clear purchasing authority. So, instead he decided to conduct a “proof of concept” test using two less complex email service providers that would allow him to run a test quickly and easily.
“We took a subset of our list and randomized it to make sure it was unbiased.” Although both the vendors imposed maximum send limits on new accounts (to prevent spammers from abusing their systems), Prusak was able to send enough email through both systems to get a statistically valid result. “I wanted at least 100 responses from each.”
After reviewing measured opens and clicks from both vendors, he was “skeptical” about the results. So, a month later, he ran the test again. This time he split the send between the vendor that had performed the best the first time, and his own in-house email servers.
RESULTS
Prusak says the site’s email offer is so popular that he’s well on his way to a list size in excess of a million names. The 10 Tips autoresponder has been “very effective” at helping to convert new leads into buyers.
“We have excellent responses. People have called us up and emailed us back that this is great information.” The yes/no hotlinks at the bottom of each issue also see mainly positive results. Interestingly, the autoresponders that get the best open and click rates are the first two (which is predictable) and the seventh (which has the most valuable-sounding subject line.)
The fact that a seventh daily email could do as well as a first day email is fairly remarkable, and it speaks to the fact that content really is king.
The delivery test results using an external ESP were far better than Prusak had dreamed they would be. “I just expected they would get a bit better, but one vendor got a 17% increase in opens and a 29% increase in clicks; and the other vendor got a 14% improvement in opens and 53% increase in clicks.”
Prusak expected the higher click rates because not all pens are measured, and also perhaps some of the previously filtered recipients would be more interested in the content than people who’d gotten all emails so far.
However, Prusak found the difference in click increase somewhat inexplicable to some extent because click rates should by all rights remain evenly matched (the content is the same once someone’s opened it.)
The second test between house servers and the best performer of the two vendors (the one with the best click rate), was won by the vendor. “Compared to internal results, there was a 5% increase in opens and a 35% in clicks.”
After convincing an initially skeptical management team, Prusak began his official search for a higher-end vendor for a complete integration. He’s narrowed the field to three, and will be making his decision shortly.
(Note: If you are a sales rep for an ESP Prusak has not contacted, please do NOT contact him. He’s not interested and a deluge of sales calls are sorry payback for graciously offering your story to MarketingSherpa. Thank you.)
Useful links related to this article:
Creative samples from RESPeRATE’s email campaigns
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/resperate/study.html
Sender Score Certified - the email certification service Prusak tested:
http://www.senderscorecertified.com/
Vertical Response - The email service provider Prusak tested that got the highest score:
http://www.verticalresponse.com
Constant Contact - the email service provider Prusak tested that did better than in-house:
http://www.constantcontact.com
RESPeRATE
www.resperate.com
From Marketing Sherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=28523
Posted by copiasolaris under Case Studies | Comments (0)