The term "Delivered"...

How do you define it? The Email Marketers Club wants to know (login required).

Join us for the conversation surounding the use of these words, as we try to determine if there is a 'standard description' for these terms, and others:

• Deliverability
• Email Delivered
• Email Inbox Delivered

This sounds very similar to the task set out by the E-mail Measurement Accuracy Coalition which has been very quiet since launching, in the spring.

Email Standards Project launches

Today the Email Standards Project website launched. This formal initiative is focusing on developers and the design community to standardize and improve the existing support and accessibility in email. The Email Standards Project has already completed an initial test of many of the popular email clients and their support for the same message;


Email Marketer's should be very excited for this project.

When you move from one ESP to another...

What do you take with you?

Here is the minimum information you NEED to take and why:

1. Bounce information and history - Re-mailing to old bounced addresses is a good way to get blocked and cause issue with your new provider before even breaking in your new home. Most ESPs will monitor your deployments during your on boarding to look for weird or abnormal behaviour from your account. This could cause termination of your account and further interruptions of your mailing program.
2. Opt-outs - Failing to migrate these from one provider to another may result in; Excessive complaints, blocking or filtering, Legal issues (remember CAN-SPAM requires a 10 day opt-out), Privacy issues and investigations. This is a key hygiene process that should be completed before your first mailing with your new provider.
3. Your from address - You have been asking your subscribers to Add to address book for the last two or more years, why ask them all to do it again with a new domain. Chances are only your loyal readers are going to see this and without proper notice and forethought it maybe too late and your already in their junk folder. With some careful planning and a couple days to adjust your settings your entire program can migrate from one system to another with out impeding the average program.
4. Supporting Tools - Don't forget to update your analytics, CRM solution, and other supporting aplications as needed. If these are critical pieces of your program you need account for them well in advance to changing providers and time your migration accordingly.

With these items your program should progress without many hickups or issues. Have any other tips or ideas for system migrations? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Experimental Authentication Survey #3

Month three regarding the measurement and progression of email authentication.

Spam is running at 7031 (96% of inbound*) messages in the last 30 days comparing to 229 ham messages.

The percent of spam passing authentication tests is now at 1.5%, with 16.7% failing. Leaving 81.9 % as a neutral source.

Comparing the ham ratio of 38% neutral and 62% passing (50% in August, 57% in Sep/Oct) authentication tests.

Remember the holidays are coming - and you still have time to ensure that all of your email is authenticated. Don't forget your corporate email should also be authenticated. This will help your inbox placement and to protect your brand.

See the previous results: Month 1 and Month 2

Green flag = Passing authentication response
Yellow flag = Neutral authentication response
Red flag = Failing authentication response

* One complete month of spam used as a sample, prior tests used only 2 weeks of data. Complete monthly data will be used going forward.

CaseCamp 6 - Toronto

Last night was CaseCamp 6 here in Toronto a great night of networking and Case studies.

Presentations were given by:

The Globeandmail.com focused on the launch and expansion of their "Join the Conversation" program where users can comment on almost every article published to their website. Sounds like some good thought and some cool ideas are going into this product.

Vortex Mobile gave a great case study on Mobile Marketing for Levis during the Virgin Fest Toronto. The over all outcome did not distract from email marketing campaigns which actually makes the idea a great companion program.

Treehugger.com's Lloyd Alter gave a great overview of building an online community and the growing pains of a grass roots organization of 4 people to a global program with 30+ writers and a recient purchase from Discovery

Will Pate, also presented and talked about being a Brand and Community Evangelist. Providing insight into being part of the discussion and monitoring your global brand. Tips; Be Real - people can spot a fake, Be involved - respond in minutes not days or weeks, Be Positive - Negativity only lowers the view point of the average view.

Get out to a CaseCamp event if you can - they are great for meeting people and you may just learn something.

The tools you need...

Today the Email Diva wrote about "Tools for Email Marketers", and included a great list of items you should be reviewing, but several key tools for marketers were left out (some we talked about before).

A few other to add to your list include:

• A support group - "The Email Marketer's Club"
• Read about what's going on in the email space from Marketing experts
• Monitor your reputation and your brand
• Use the tools available from Habeas, Return Path or Pivotal Veracity
• Authenticate your mail - test your setup

There are several other great tools available - care to share one? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

Are your ready for Black Friday?

As our Neighbours to the south prepare for their Thanksgiving weekend, retailers around the United States are gearing up for "Black Friday"and "Cyber Monday" as the kick off of Holiday shopping.

What are you doing to prepare?

Here are some ideas:

• Segmentation; A/B split testing, subject lines, and targeted offers based on client loyalty - try different offers for a Friday segment vs. a Monday segments.
• Coupons for user that register at Point of Sale (make them want to come back again and grow your list while your at it)
• Take care of your customer and their friends
• Personalize your user experience based on their preferences and past interactions
• Never forget your upsell or product recomendations - Tigerdirect does a great job of this when reviewing your shopping cart with a "May we recomend the following items..." by providing three relevent and complementary products.

Have any other ideas on how to be prepared? Email them to contact or leave us a comment.

EEC | Email Performance Award

The EEC has reciently announced the creation of the "Email Performance Award" to be presented during the Email Evolution Conference on February 13, 2008, in San Dieago CA.

This award recognizes an individual or company that has demonstrated the full power of email marketing through the development and execution of a unique email program or campaign.

Key Components:

• marketing strategy
• creative components
• most importantly the results

In Addition to winning the Email Performance Award the winner will also be placed into the semi-finals of the Direct Marketing Association’s International ECHO Awards.

Hat tip BeRelevant!

Split decission on list rental

The EEC recently completed a two-click survey on weather the "Benefits of List Rental Outweigh the Risks?"

The results were mixed at best with 51% saying that the benefits do outweigh the risks, with 49% of the respondents saying that the risks are not worth the benefits.

This is actually surprising, as many of the common delivery issues that mailers expereince can be related to the list building best practices that they follow.

For other list building tips refer to these resources:

OneDegree: Using Email to Build Trust

ClickZ: Four Quick-Fix Options to Supplement a Small E-mail List

Word to the Wise: Permission, Part 1 and Permission, Part 2

SpamResource: Purchased Lists Are Still Lame (example of what not to do)

Do you have any other tips? Email them to contact or leave us a comment.

IAPP | Privacy After Hours event

Last night the IAPP hosted networking events in several different locations across North America, Europe and Australia. Luckily there was a local event here in Toronto that was easy to find and attend.

Meeting with several individuals that share the same concerns and experiences of your daily life is highly rewarding and gives you the opportunity to discuss the difference and the key privacy aspects your program or other relevant privacy related issues in your local market place.

One of the items that sticks out was the discussion around notice of collection source and notices of the sender... In Canada the Privacy legislation (PIPEDA) states that the sending party is required to;

• Clearly identify your organization
• Provide the ability to opt-out of messages
• Provide a link to your privacy statement
• Have the consent of the individual who's private information is being collected (email is considered private information - Meaning you need consent to send a person email)

Watch for the next IAPP meeting in a city near you, it's well worth the experience.

Learn more on how PIPEDA effects your email deployments can be found here.

Defining Spam - four ways

Mickey, ran this article today on the definitions of spam (as used by various anti-spammers), prompted by an ongoing discussion around the quality of several differnt blacklists being measured by DNSBL.com.

The four clasifications fall into these categories (identified by MickC);

Definition 1: “Mail that comes to my spamtrap addresses which was unasked for”. a.k.a. "unsolicited bulk email”

Definition 2: “mail which violates some legal standard”

Definition 3: “a source most blacklist users would identify as spam-source under the ‘Boulder Pledge’ or a similar notion.”

Definition 4: “mail my users (as a group) do not want.” or “mail that I do not want”.

For the full story and understanding of why these definitions are important to your email campaign read "Multiplying Goalposts", Posted on November 8th, 2007 by MickC

Upcoming Webinars

Some upcoming sessions to consider attending.

SITEBRAND:
12 Can't Miss Email Strategies for Online Retailers
Elastic Path Webinar with Sitebrand's Carolyn Gardner
Thursday, November 8, 2007 9 am PST/ 12 pm EST - Register Here

HABEAS:
November 13th to share stories and best practices from National Geographic’s multi-channel marketing efforts. Sign up and learn best practices that you can apply to your marketing programs.

RETURN PATH:
Thursday, November 15th at 1pm ET / 12pm CT / 11am MT / 10am PT
Render Me This: Solving the Riddle of Image Suppression for High Response Email

10 Tips for Growing and Refining Your List

With statistics like these...

• More than 90% of Canadians surveyed in the 2007 CRTC New Media Report said they used the Internet for email (CBC)
• 4 out of 5 adults use the internet (Marketing Vox)
• 79 percent of adults are now online (Harris Research)
• The average number of hours per week that people are spending online is now 11 hours, up from 9 hours last year (Harris Research)
• Every dollar spent on email marketing in 2007, marketers can expect an estimated $48.29 ROI. (DMA 2007)

... you really should read ThinData's newly published list; 10 Tips for Growing and Refining Your List.

1. Be Respectful.
2. Be Methodical.
3. Be Clear.
4. Be Relevant.
5. Be Forthcoming.
6. Be Two-Way.
7. Be Fair.
8. Be Recognized.
9. Be Current.
10. Be Authenticated.

Going Viral?

With the holiday ecard season approaching and the ever popular Subservient Chicken still on the loose you need to be prepare your viral marketing program to be a success.

The Agency Blog has compiled a Top 6 things not to do with your viral campaign.

The hit list includes:

• Don’t be too blatant or shameless with your plug.
• Don’t post your viral video without getting someone else’s opinion first.
• Don’t refuse to start over or admit that your viral video is not great.
• Don’t give your viral video too much or too little attention.
• Don’t jump in unarmed.
• Don’t make your video to crude or filthy.

Other great recources for Word-of-Mouth or viral Marketing can be found on the WOMMA WORD Blog or with the video examples from Lee & Dan.

Gearing up for the 2007 holiday season

The holidays are rapidly approaching, email campaigns are gearing up. Are you ready for the season?

If not here are some helpful links to get you thinking about the next six to eight weeks of your email program:

• Email Marketing Reports Holiday email marketing advice - Offers practical advice on the holiday marketing season and links to other valuable resources
• The EEC's 2007 Guide to Gearing Up for the Holiday Email Season - Offers a helpful road map to the email holiday season and a downloadable holiday white paper
• Return Path's 3 Ideas to Boost Holiday Email Response - Gives three helpful tips on increasing response and user interaction with your program
• WhatCounts: Get the Most out of the Holiday Frenzy: The Best Holiday Loyalty Marketing Practices for 2007 - Provides ten ideas for your program this holiday season.

Do you have any other tips for the 2007 holiday season? Email them to contact or leave a comment.

DMNews and Charles Stiles

Recently we linked to a couple stories about Charles Stiles, Former AOL postmaster - New VP at Goodmail.

DMNews has been able to talk to Charles about some of his experiences in this story: A conversation with AOL’s Charles Stiles.

Charles talks about:

• The biggest issues being seen regarding spam
• AOL's method of monitoring users and protecting their network
• Image spam and filtering
• Feed back loops and the report as spam button being used as an unsubscribe
• The power of Authentication

This is a great read for marketers and gives a good overview of the thought process behind AOL's filtering, and methods.