Is there a best day to email market?

Wow. This is a very common question. The answer is NO when the parameters are not specified along with the question. (You want an answer for YOU don't you?) Are you a B2B marketer, a B2C, are you sending an offer or a newsletter, are you selling a weekend sport product? you get it.. I am steering you to NO because it depends. The answer winds up: use common sense and TEST TEST TEST but please continue.

Testing campaigns for your service, product or information spreading is pretty much a specific situation, that may work only for you (see, you're special). But if you are looking for a heart operation without seeing a doctor for testing, here are some VERY BASIC rules that will put you in the same place most people get to when they have not done any testing themselves (I know I am starting to sound Nagy).

If you are reaching Business readers: Tuesday through Thursday seems to be better and time of day should be between 9 and 11 AM.

If you are reaching Consumers: Friday through Sunday may be best with arrival times from 5-9 PM.

Feel better now? You shouldn't. I don't. I really want to give you a good answer.

But instead I have another question for you... Did you ever see the "odds board" at the race track? Every time someone bets on a horse the odds tip toward that horse to win... think about it, that's what we are asking when we pose this question. If every reputable person asked this question answered with "Friday"... would everyone start emailing on Friday? That would create an inbox glut. So it seems that maybe testing is the way to go using this argument as well.

So just test. Use small controls and pay attention. Does your database management and campaign management solution allow you to segment and control your campaign so this testing can be produced? Are read, opens, clickthrus and sale statistics available? Does your Campaign Management solution track these metrics? I hope so, because your answer will come from this.

oh yea... don't sell ice cream in the winter or heavy coats in the summer.. that might be a bad time to sell. I knew I could answer this.

What is SenderBase?

Senderbase is a fairly comprehensive resource tool that will help you check-up on your mailing reputation score among other things. If you are email marketing this is important to you. Your email may not be getting to inboxes because your reputation might be compromised.

Senderbase is brought to you by IronPort. IronPort has been defined this way in the Wikipedia entry.

"IronPort Systems, headquartered in San Bruno, California, designs and sells products and services that protect enterprises against Internet threats. It is best known for IronPort AntiSpam, the SenderBase email reputation service, and email security appliances."

Here's a roadmap to check on your email reputation as SenderBase sees it.

1. Go here: SenderBase

2. At the top of this page look for:

Look up your network:

Enter your email domain or IP address in the provided input box and hit the "Look Up" button (you can also get some help hovering over the question mark located after the above phrase).

You will be presented with the report.

If you used a domain name instead of an IP address click on the IP address provided to the left of your domain name located toward the bottom left of this report.

Look for: SenderBase reputation score in the right upper section of the report. There are other statistics listed on this report.. have a look around. Be Green.

A explanation of a "Good" reputation is defined as this:

"Little or no threat activity has been observed from your IP address or domain. Your email traffic is not likely to be filtered or blocked, allowing for trouble-free email delivery worldwide."

Use the question marks (hover over them) provided for help about what data is being presented in the report.

So what is CAN-SPAM anyway?

The CAN-SPAM act is law. Yes a law, that is designed to stop SPAM (loosely defined as unsolicited email) from getting into any email inbox when it is sent from "Commercial Emailers".

The acronym "CAN-SPAM" comes from "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act".

The paragraph below is taken directly from the act itself and can be reviewed in it's entirety at the CAN-SPAM Act

"The law, which became effective January 1, 2004, covers email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site. A "transactional or relationship message" – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act."

The Act includes PENALTIES. So you should get to know what they are. Here is another extract from the ACT:

"Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising."

You are encouraged to visit the above link to get acquainted with the Act. It is spelled out pretty clearly. It is clearly better to review the Act itself rather then an interpretation of it in this Blog. But suffice to say it is important for you to cover it. Your service provider should help you to conform to the needs you should follow in adhering to the Act.

Practical "know your customer" example

I just sent an email to an email marketing company that "I have done business with"... as a consumer (you know BUYER)... think it will get the attention it should? We'll see. If they are paying attention they should change the way they use this marketing campaign. I have clearly been only a "Merrel" customer (ALL my purchases have been to this brand). They should target better to get an advantage.. not get me angry... you see, I ignore ALL their emails because I have learned that they never have a savings in it for me because my "brand" is always excluded from their savings offer.

Use the information you KNOW about your customer to your advantage, not to your disadvantage, that's the point. You should be using the information you know (and you should be tracking this information through your marketing database) whenever you make choices to "market to this segment". Get it right and find a campaign management solution that let's you do that.


The email I sent them:

Dear xxxshoes

Here’s a thought… you offer wonderful come-ons for reduced pricing... but never for “Merrell” brand. Stop sending the emails to me since that’s the reason I use your company in the first place… to be honest it just makes me angry… better you let me “not know” all the great savings I can’t use. It creates a “bad” feeling… probably not what your marketing intention is.

Fred

Multi Channel Email/Direct

Does your emessaging and direct solution integrate or do they live in the same solution? It is increasingly important that the information crosses over to both channels but it is sometimes not really the same solution that houses the processes. Is this good? I don't think so. Making it work in different solutions is time consuming and worse. It is like your business is speaking in different languages.

Don't settle to MASH or mesh 2 disparate solutions, it means not sharing what you learn across channels or makes it hard to get that info across those channels.

You should not settle for a Direct solution and a separate emessaging solution. There are solutions that do both. But we see many situations where Direct marketers simply pull info from their direct solution and send it off to a separate emessaging provider only to then get a different set of customer data that then gets reintegrated into the database that housed the direct info in the first place. That sentence was round about just like that process. See what I mean?

Find a campaign management and database solution that handle BOTH channels.It will pay off in the near and future end.

Why to segment your data

Slice and dice your data into segments that make sense. It is foolish to over segment and just as foolish to under segment who your message reaches. Don't send the same message to everybody. Think about it, do you greet all your friends the same way? I doubt it. Why do you do that? Messaging to your clients should be the same. Use the things that matter most to the relationship that you share.

If your messaging/emessaging solution allows, make sure you can isolate the customers that mirror your message most and make sure you can message with the correct level of granularity. Maybe you need to target your message to 3 groups that have a different value placed on your service. Talk to them that way. "hello", "hey" and "whatz up" may be the same thing but they will be greeted in different ways. Say the right thing... it will help with the rest of your message.

Better Email messaging

Here is the first in a series. Look back for further info on this subject.

It has been around forever (in the Internet world anyway) and it has been announced as DEAD many times over and with all the road blocks to getting it done "correctly" it still remains a great way to get the message out.

Things you need to know:

.What is CAN-SPAM?
.covering OPT-IN/OPT-OUT
.Senderbase
.Reputation Monitoring
.Why Segmentation is important?
.HTML vs Text messaging
.over saturation and how it hurts
.is there a best day of week?
.what makes up a permissioned email?
.solving a bad email reputation
.campaign management is important to emessaging too
.is emessaging to be treated differently then Direct?

ALL are among the things we will cover. We will also be Including other great resources to this never ending but rich channel.