Email marketing and deliverability

After running email campaigns, performance metrics start flowing in. There is a gratifying feeling in seeing open rates and click-through engagement. But there are other metrics that indicate the success, or even lack of success, of your email campaigns; yes, I am talking about bounce rates. High bounce rates are the bane of any email marketer’s existence, but they are very common.

So, how you can reduce bounce backs and see better ROI from your email marketing campaigns? The answer may be simpler than you think.

When you build something, the final product is only as strong as the foundation it was built upon. Building a company is no different. It’s not uncommon for startups, in the pursuit of rapid growth and higher valuations, to accidentally allow the basics to become an afterthought.

Do you ever wonder how, no matter what you do, your competition consistently gets ahead of you? Well, you’re not alone! Unfortunately, this is a common frustration for a lot of marketers. We all know how invaluable gaining a competitive advantage is; the challenge is figuring out the how, the what, and the when. While there may not be one simple solution, lead nurturing is one of the best ways to beat out your competition.

As digital marketers, the technology available to help us get the word out about our products seems limitless. Whether you’re focused on hyper-personalization, segmentation, or building out models to target ideal customers, the most tried and true channel has been, and for the foreseeable future will remain, email marketing. Why do we love it so much? It’s fast and efficient and inexpensive compared to other channels.

Here’s an exercise for you: Go to Google. Type in, “The three necessities of life.” What’s the first result? I’ll save you the keystrokes—unlike most searches, the first result doesn’t link to a website. The answer’s so obvious that Google provides one for you. Food, (including water), shelter, and clothing. No matter what culture, time era, or religion, everyone agrees that in life, these are the absolute three necessities of survival. Without food and water, you die.  Without shelter or clothing to protect you from the elements, guess what, you die. 

It’s that time of year again…where the greatest minds in email marketing come together for insightful sessions, adventurous networking activities, and some awesome after-hours themed parties. I’m talking about Media Post’s annual summer edition of their Email Insider Summit. Tropical Storm Colin tried to rain on our parade—but nothing can stop this crowd!

This was my first time at Email Insider Summit and it definitely lived up to the hype. I got a chance to step back into my email marketer shoes and interestingly, a lot of the challenges we were talking about a couple of years ago are still top-of-mind for folks today. That’s not to say no progress has been made, but it serves more as a reminder of the monumental challenge that all marketers are trying to tackle on a daily basis: connecting with customers in the right place and at the right time. Here are my four key takeaways from Media Post’s Email Insider Summit 2016: 

Email marketing remains one of the most successful and cost-effective marketing channels. Some say it’s second only to search, and we agree. The cost of sending an email is measured in tiny fractions of a penny while the average return is between $0.06 and $0.07*. The common wisdom is that every $1 spent on email returns $40 in revenue. That’s a 4000% ROI!

Yet there’s a lot that can be done to improve results. Clearly open and click through rates depend a lot on subject lines and offers, but maximizing your return also means maximizing deliverability. Here are 10 tried-and-true steps for optimizing your retail email marketing efforts and achieving the greatest return.

In today’s increasingly digital marketplace, retailers find themselves at a crossroads. Their customers are seeking products and information online, and they’re entering retail stores more knowledgeable than ever before. In order to stay a step ahead of savvy customers, retailers are turning to high-tech marketing practices to give themselves an edge. A common way to do this is to use customer contact information to market products and increase customer engagement.

The year was 2004. An ambitious, young, soon-to-be data blogger had his first internship in the IT department of a Fortune 500 company. (Impressive, I know.) I had been working there roughly three years and was considered the youngest employee in company history by at least half a decade.

I’m sorry sir, your card’s been declined.

What do you mean? Run it again.

Yes sir, I’ve already run this three times. It’s—it’s not going through.

That’s impossible. This is a Platinum card with a $50,000 limit. Let me use your phone, I’m calling my bank.

Awkward, isn’t it? As you may have guessed, Evan did not walk out of the store with his new Gucci loafers. Now what happened here?