Adestra

When Microsoft upgraded their flagship email client, Outlook, for the 2007 edition of Microsoft Office, they decided to make a fundamental change that completely rewrote the rules of email design. With the last incarnation in 2003, they used Internet Explorer (IE) as the rendering tool, which meant that provided your template looked fantastic in IE, it would look pretty much exactly the same in your inbox. However, for Outlook 2007 they changed the rules and opted to use Word for rendering purposes instead, which meant everything had to change.

Tricks and ideas that we used to use were out the window – it meant for a whole lot of changes to the way we code for email, but in a constantly evolving industry a change this significant was inevitable. So, with the latest version of Office comes a new version of Outlook – 2010 to be exact – which continues to use Word over IE.
Apart from front end changes, not much has altered in terms of rendering. Below are a list of items that you should look out for when coding for Outlook 2007 and 2010.

• Alt labels: Any alt text is replaced with the url, if the image is clickable, or does not appear if there is no link.
• Animations: Only the first slide of an animated gif will be visible, so make sure your most important content is included on it. Flash still is and has always been a no-go in email.
• Background: Background images are almost always stripped out – ensure you have a solid colour as a backup, in case you’re using white text on a dark image.
• Cascading Style Sheets: A lot of CSS won’t work, but the core elements will inline:
  • background-color
  • color
  • font-family
  • font-size
  • font-weight
  • line-height
  • text-align
  • text-decoration
• Character spacing: Outlook will marginally increase the size of your designated font, meaning that if you have a small amount of text boxed in by a series of images, where there is no extra room, it can lead to a breakage. Ensure that there is sufficient room to allow for this.
• Forms: Although the element will be visible and information can be inputted, the submit button will not work.
• Height: Try to visualise how your email will appear on a Word page. If you have a series of images on top of each other, an unexpected gap will appear where Word tries to insert a page break. Try to keep your content within separated tables or, if possible, shorten your email to reduce the risk.
• Images: Aim to use width=100 height=100 on images, to preserve the original aspect ratio. If style=”width: 50px; height: 50px” is used instead, this will be removed and the original dimensions reinstated. You can get around this by denoting width=50 height=50 instead.
• Padding: I’ve learned to use nested tables for my padding, so always ensure that tables and cells have a fixed width so that your spacing displays correctly.

Obviously some of these commands work differently in other email clients, but it gives an insight into any problems you might encounter with Outlook 2007 or 2010. If you have any questions, please email strategy@adestra.com

Neil Bursnoll, Adestra Production Team Leader

Marketers are using social media to enhance their email marketing campaigns rather than to replace them, according to new research published by Econsultancy and Adestra today.

The fourth annual Email Marketing Industry Census found that more than a third of companies (37%) are using email to encourage the sharing of content on social networks, and just under a third of companies (31%) say they are planning to do this.

A fifth of companies (21%) are using email to promote customer ratings and reviews, while a further 26% have plans to do this. The research also found that 28% of companies are using video content in their emails, as marketers increasingly use email to build customer engagement.

The 2010 research, based on a survey of almost 900 digital marketers carried out in January and February 2010, found that email marketing now accounts for 17% of digital marketing budgets compared to 14% in 2009.

Increased investment can be attributed to the fact that the vast majority of responding companies (75%) rate email as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for return on investment.

Henry Hyder-Smith, Managing Director at email service provider Adestra, said: “The explosive impact of social media on email marketing and its significance on this year’s census can’t be ignored. We are delighted to see that email is far from dying in the midst of the social media revolution. And instead of cannibalisation, we are witnessing a solid partnership evolving between the two; email and social media working in harmony to fuel one another.”

Despite the fact that many companies are becoming more sophisticated with their email marketing, and integrating this channel with other activities, there remains concern that many marketers are still not following basic best practice, the research has found.

Too many organisations are still not paying sufficient attention to the quality of their lists and the importance of relevant email.
The research, sponsored by Adestra for the fourth year running, found that:

• Only 56% of companies are using opt-in (43%) or confirmed opt-in (13%) data for their acquisition emails, while only 60% are using opt-in (39%) or confirmed opt-in (21%) data for their retention emails.

• The quality of database is deemed to be the biggest barrier to effective email marketing. This is cited as a problem by 61% of marketers, up from 44% in 2009. But only a third (32%) of company respondents say list / data quality is a top-three priority for 2010.

• The proportion of responding companies have problems reaching recipients’ inboxes has increased from 51% last year to 54%. The percentage of companies who say that deliverability is a barrier to success has increased from 13% in 2009 to 24% in 2010.

Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director at Econsultancy, said: “Companies must take care to focus on the relevance of their email in a world where it is becoming increasingly important for brands to demonstrate value, rather than bombarding people with unwanted messages. Sophisticated segmentation and effective list-cleansing are more important than ever. ”
Other key findings include:

• More than half of companies (54%) are now using a hosted email service as the growth of web-based email applications continues. This percentage compares to 47% last year, a third (33%) of respondents in 2008, and only a quarter (27%) in 2007.

• There has been a significant increase (+5%) in the proportion of companies who say that return on investment (ROI) from email is more than 500%.
• But as witnessed in previous years, there are still too few companies who understand their ROI from email. Thirty-nine per cent of companies still don’t know their ROI from email. More encouragingly, looking at those who can quantify their return from email, there has been an increase in companies who say that they get more than 500% ROI from this channel.

• From a range of email marketing practices, companies are most likely to be carrying out basic segmentation (80%) and regular list-cleansing (58%). The practices respondents are most likely to be planning to carry out are advanced segmentation (42%), content personalisation beyond name (37%) and behavioural targeting based on web activity (34%).

• The integration of email marketing with other sales and marketing activities is an on-going challenge, and there isn’t much evidence of significant improvement in this area since the first Email Census in 2007. Only 17% say that their email marketing is “fully integrated”, the same proportion as last year.

Report URL – Email Marketing Census 2010

Journalists, Please contact Hollie Williams for more info

Whilst we all feel the need to have a forward to a friend (FTAF) link on our email, are we doing enough to get those who are forwarded the email subscribed to our emails? Clearly if someone has taken the time out to think a friend or colleague would be interested in your content then that friend is more than likely going to want to receive your emails.

But have you thought how to get these signed up to receive future emails?

Traditionally links have been placed on the email ‘Have you been forwarded this email? Click here to subscribe.’ But these would have to be placed on the original email sent to those who have already subscribed, using up valuable space. So how about dynamically adding in a link to only those that have been forwarded the email to a subscription page?

This is possible through the Adestra platform (MessageFocus) FTAF feature.

A forward to a friend form would typically ask for your name and email address and your friend’s name, email address and any additional message you would like to add at the top of the email sent on. How about adding in a link here that says ‘Like what you see? Click here to subscribe to further emails like this one’ with a link to your subscription page or a subscription centre setup by Adestra that can automatically trigger out a welcome message and subscribe them to the relevant list(s).

A one off setup that can result in a high amount of new subscribers without using up valuable space in your original email; if you would like to find out more about this feature please contact us.

Andrew Abram, Client Strategy Consultant

Last month I presented at the B2B Marketing Magazines email excellence seminar, and this debate popped up again.  Adestra commented on this very subject in 2008 on the E-consultancy blog but how much has actually changed since then?

It is true that email results for acquisition are still substantially lower than for retention emails, and load and blast isn’t the best method either. There is one obvious reason why retention emails perform better than acquisition and that is because recipient knows who you are and so they read your email.

Now, if we transfer this to email for acquisition, the question is not “Is email for acquisition dead?” it’s “when should you use email for acquisition?” The simple answer is, when they know who you are.

Possible ways to do this:

• Following up your sales teams call list with a newsletter about the service / company.
• Using the data you have collected at an trade show to nurture prospects.
• Your company has spoken at event. See if you can use that data to send out the presentation and start a dialogue with the prospects.
• Competition entries, signups for whitepapers etc etc… use the information you have.

From here, these prospects can be entered into a lead nurturing programme which can include events, letters, email, telesales and face-to-face meetings to ensure they know who you are and you are building a rapport with your leads.

So no, email for acquisition is not dead, but using it to blanket email a bought list just won’t work for you any longer. Email should be a part of the lead nurturing process and cannot be relied on to close the deal for you, but it will help you to build that relationship with your prospects if used with other channels.

Reena Mistry, Group Account Director

Econsultancy and Adestra annual email marketing census has just been launched,  as always it will cover email marketing topics such as  Use of email services, Email marketing budgets,  ROI and effectiveness, Email Integration and Deliverability.

To take part all you will have to do is fill in the Email marketing Census 2010 survey, at the end of the survey you will also get the chance to fill in your details to get your own free copy (worth £150).

Adestra will hold a breakfast briefing in March where we will discuss the latest hot topics and best practice for email marketing for 2010, if you are interesting in taking part of that please feel  free to fill in your details on our contact us page.

Finally we would like to thank the Linus plus the team at Econsultancy and everyone else that has taken part in the 2010 Econsultancy and Adestra email marketing census, if you would like to stay up to date on these hot topics please subscribe to our RSS feed and/or newsletter to make sure that you receive the latest news.

The ability to report, track and respond to your recipients actions makes email a phenomenal and incredibly powerful marketing tool. As technology improves and reporting gets better and better, many people still rely on the “delivered” figure in their ESP to tell them how many people received their email. As important and fairly accurate this is, what if your email is going into the junk folder, or the server is not sending a bounceback?

How can you find out where your email is going?

There are other tools you can bolt on that will tell you this information. ReturnPath’s Mailbox Monitor tool is extremely powerful in telling you exactly what is going on with your email send. Simply by seeding your emails to Mailbox Monitor we at Adestra can monitor “inbox placement” for our clients so we know when their email is going to junk or going missing. Below is an example of one of our clients emails. You can then click on the email itself and find out exactly which email systems are junking or just not receiving your email.

From there, Adestra work with our clients to find out why their emails are not being delivered and advise on improving their deliverability.

To find out more about the deliverability tools we offer, please email us

Reena Mistry, Group Account Director

Spam filters are the bain of any email marketers life; I am constantly getting asked, ‘why is my email getting considered as junk’.

It is harder than ever to get legitimate email messages successfully delivered, this is hardly surprising when according to Symantec 87% of emails sent in October 2009 were spam. Therefore filters are increasingly becoming more sophisticated against spam emails. It’s not just one filter the email needs to get through, there are several, gateway filters, server filters, as well as desktop client filters.

Spammers are changing their tactics constantly to get around these filters, therefore ISP’s need to change how they monitor email in order to keep their customers inboxes clean. The results being that an email may sail into the inbox one week, the same email the following week could be filtered or blocked.

The key to ensuring your email passes all spam filters is to test, set up a number of test inboxes, and test your campaign to these.  An email may pass the spam filter in one email client but not in another, due to different spam rules.

Encourage your recipients to add your from address/domain to their safe senders list, to guarantee entry into their inboxes, it will also mean that images will be automatically downloaded too.

Make it easy for your recipient to unsubscribe from your emails, as it is far better they unsubscribe from your mailings rather than marking the email as spam.

Ensure all unsubscribe requests are adhered to as quickly as possible, if not instantly, also don’t repeatedly send to bounced email addresses, if ISP’s see you constantly trying to deliver to dead email address, this is going to have a negative effect on your deliverability.

99% of the time when I get asked ‘why is my email getting considered as junk’ the reason is content based. Be this the subject line, from name, main body content, link reputation, image to text ratio etc etc.

Tools such as ReturnPaths Campaign Preview and Mailbox Monitor make it easier in distinguishing if and why your email has been marked as spam.

Things to avoid when creating your email campaign are:-

• Subject Line – avoiding using CAPS, quotations marks, exclamation marks, dollar signs, plus spammy words such as discount.

• Main Body – consider the image to text ratio, using 100% images is a common spamming technique to get past content filters. Some words on their own or in conjunction with others can cause spam implications, try to avoid words such as, no obligations, no risk, money back guarantee, free offer / trail / application / access. In addition consider where you links are going, if you have a link in your email linking to a website which has been blacklisted this could cause your email to be classed as spam.

If you are having problems getting your email into the inbox, please contact us on moreinfo@adestra.com or speak to your Strategy Consultant.

Jenna Lovell, Client Strategy Executive

@econsultancy have just posted an interesting article http://bit.ly/4Qz9H1 on a recent Which? report on poor customer experiences relating to product delivery. I expect that we have all, at some point in our lives had issues with delivery companies leaving things on show, damaging items in transit or having completely inflexible delivery processes.

Personally when this has happened to me I haven’t necessarily blamed the website I have used to make the purchase but ultimately they choose who to use for delivery so 9 times out of 10 the end result is that I go elsewhere next time. With so many possible suppliers for products in the modern online age any differentiator, however minor can be enough to sway me.

Brand, price and service are all equally important in gaining me as a customer initially but these standards must be maintained to keep me. Brand and price can be measured as can service post sale but do you do it? You can…

As a self confessed DIY geek I recently purchased a few items from Screwfix. I was attracted by their price, range of products and the promise of fast delivery. They delivered on all fronts but not resting on their laurels they emailed me a few days after delivery to check that I was happy with the product and the delivery service. I was also invited to review the product to share my experiences. Excellent!

Screwfix get to hear all about my delivery experience good or bad and can act accordingly, managing poor experiences or maximising the value of good experiences by enabling happy customers to become brand advocates.

As it transpired they good full marks all round and a glowing review for the product. Job done!

The same process can apply for any fulfilment be it a physical product delivery, event or service and with data fed into MessageFocus automatically the follow up campaigns need not take up resource. Speak with your commercial manager to discuss options for managing your customer experience

Rob Hunter, Group Account Director

I had a meeting recently with a client who were looking to improve their unsubscribe process after feedback recentlyreceived from their customers highlighted the fact that some were receiving communications that were not of interest to them. With a big push in list growth a while back, the need to manage the relevance of their emails was soon seen as a high requirement.

I was actually impressed that the client came to me with the need to evaluate their whole unsubscribe process, too often the unsubscribe process is seen as a negative thing and doesn’t get the attention it requires but it is important; after all, who wants to speak to someone who doesn’t want to listen?

Now when it comes to why people unsubscribe the reasons are never straight forward, there can be numerous factors as to why someone may want to unsubscribe, not just because they don’t want to receive messages from you. This is where the preference centre comes in.  Adestra have seen that when a preference centre option is offered unsubscribe rates drop significantly.

A preference centre is a way for subscribers to pick what titles, what type of communication (events, marketing, newsletters for example) and what 3^rd party emails they want to receive. It overcomes the problem of just offering a global opt-out and also gives them the chance to opt in to titles that they may not have previously been aware off; a method of cross-promoting titles. It can also act as ‘an update your details’ form, a great way to capture updated details, especially useful if you are segmenting data based on demographics or work information.

Adestra’s preference centre functionality can automatically manage all this. When clicking through from an email to update their details, a subscriber can automatically see what they are opted in to receive, as well as what they may be missing out on. Once they have amended their details and submitted, their contact information will automatically be updated, meaning no manual work is required from you. The form can also be hosted elsewhere, on your website for example, so subscribers always have a chance to update their details.

Ultimately a preference centre is a way of keeping your customers engaged and allows them to just receive the emails they want to receive; something that us email marketers keep going on about.

To find out more about  this please contact your account manager or email us

Andrew Abram, Client Strategy Consultant

Recently I attended the Webtrends Engage conference and one of the most interesting questions that came up was should you let your customers opt in to relevance?

With today’s technology you can easily integrate any ESP with analytics vendors, most free vendors like Google Analytics will not let you track PII but when you are at a level to start harnessing the power of your data and are ready to take the step to an enterprise analytics vendor like Webtrends and Omniture you really can track everything.

But before you do this with automatic retargeting campaigns  should you let your customers opt in for these higly relevant emails or campaigns?

I am not talking about opting in for email marketing as I am sure that before you get here you have already fined tuned your confirmed opt in experience for email marketing.

My question is more… should you let your users opt in for relevance?

All comments and feedback are welcome here.

Fred Wahlqvist, Partnerships and solutions