Conventional wisdom of e-mail campaign design is changing as fast as the online marketing arena itself. For instance, one commonly held piece of channel doctrine states that Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days for sending out e-mail blasts. But are they?
“Not any more, because everybody goes out on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” said Michele Egan, worldwide director of direct marketing for American Power Conversion, a B-to-B power supply and surge protector marketer.
Claire Carpenter, vice president of Direct Media Inc., recalled a successful campaign for motorcycle parts that was sent out on Sunday. “[Timing] depends on the offer,” she said, noting that a prospect may be primed if he is out riding all weekend and something goes wrong with his motorcycle.
Bill McKay, vice president of list sales for Direct Media, pointed out that while open rates were important, the highest level of click-throughs and, ultimately, conversions might occur on different days.
Panelists generally touted the benefits of personalization, although they split on how it was applied.
Byron Crowell, CEO of IT Solution Journal, felt that adding a target’s name to the e-mail may help with deliverability issues. “I think it makes a difference in getting to the box,” he said, adding that his hard evidence was, at best, anecdotal.
Egan said that her company started out personalizing its messages to the recipient, which produced a bump in open rates before falling off. But it recently began using the company name in its messages. “It’s an interesting test, but you have to make sure that the company name is spelled correctly,” she said.
In some B-to-B circumstances, customized e-mails don’t necessarily rely on names — corporate or individual — for personalization. “We don’t use name or addresses [in solicitations], but we do use purchase behavior, or geographic information, such as ‘There is a new Office Depot opening up near you,'” said Office Depot Inc.’s, Jordan Felsen, manager of e-mail.
There is some controversy over graphics. Crowell sends out messages that target people within the information technology profession. Among this audience, it is not uncommon for IT staff to turn off graphic-enabling settings on corporate e-mails, which can thwart an image-reliant message. “We don’t get as good response rates [when they do that,]” he noted.
Panelists also mentioned that there were several ways in which in-house IT departments could thwart marketing messages. “Our biggest concern is company IT departments that all use a different e-mail filter,” said Felsen.
There doesn’t seem to be a lot marketers can do to circumvent this in their design. Egan said that her company actively asked recipients to make sure her company was listed in their e-mail “accept” file — via traditional mail.
Egan also uses traditional mail as a last resort when a series of e-mail messages come back as hard — refused — bounces. The postcards say that American Power Conversion used to be able to contact the client at such-and-such a digital address, which is printed right on the card.
Crowell suggested that if e-mails are coming back, a batch of them could be sent from a different IP address, just to make sure one particular ISP hadn’t blocked the sender’s mail.
The panelists made their comments during a Direct Media Co-op panel. The Co-op ended yesterday.
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