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Sept. 2013 B2C Email Volume Mixed: Retailers Sent 16.4 per Subscriber, Non-Retailers 6.1

Posted on October 3, 2013

During September, retailers sent each of their subscribers 16.4 promotional emails on average, up 1% from August. Non-retailers sent 6.1 promotional emails on average, down 1% from August.

This data is based on the anonymous tracking for more than 150 B2C brands, including retailers, restaurants, manufacturers, travel and hospitality, political groups, and nonprofits.

For more on seasonal email marketing trends, check out the Email Marketing Holiday Calendar and this month’s update on the ExactTarget Blog…

>>Email Marketing Holiday Calendar 2013: September Review & October Preview

Posted by Chad S. White

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The Last Word on September 2013

Posted on October 2, 2013

A roundup of articles, posts, tweets and emails you might have missed last month…

Must-read articles, posts & whitepapers

The Email Subscriber Experience 2008 – 2013 (Return Path)

The Dangerous Tension Between CMOs and CIOs (Harvard Business Review)

10 More Habits Of Highly Ineffective Email Marketers (MediaPost)

The How-To Guide to Responsive Email Design [Infographic] (Litmus)

Responsive email design: 10 great examples (Econsultancy)

How to add a fixed-position CTA to your email newsletters (Campaign Monitor)

Insightful & entertaining tweets

@jacaldwell: platforms aren’t in silos, people are

@wac_intosh: Embrace showrooming by using it as an opportunity to trigger campaigns based on in-store browse. Some retailers over 100x ROI #MKTGwebcast

@iamelliot: ugh, searched “responsive email” on twitter..conjecture, whinging and marketing BS all over the place now. put me right off my Angel Delight

@emailrocks: @chadswhite Thanks Chad! i’ve posted the Performance Driven Marketers Oath here http://t.co/dGVlprp3uM

@EmailKarma: Shocker! Didn’t see this coming from miles away > Yahoo Recycled Emails: Users Find Security Surprises: http://t.co/Dc1ddcpldC #privacy

Also check out: Most Tweetable Tweets from Connections 2013

Great additions to the Email Swipe File pinboard

Priceline.com email sent on 8/23/13 >> View the pin

Helzberg Diamonds email sent on 8/17/11 >> View the pin

Clinique email sent on 8/22/13 >> View the pin

Oroton email sent on 8/29/13 >> View the pin

Noteworthy subject lines

Hayneedle, 9/30 — A Home Made … guest-ready! First in a series of holiday hosting help – with $90 OFF! Plus Styleboards & more …
PersonalizationMall.com, 9/27 — 40% Off Christmas Cards – Order Early & Save‏
Peet’s Coffee & Tea, 9/30 — Order Holiday Blend 2013 by Tomorrow + FREE SHIPPING‏
Hanna Andersson, 9/23 — NEW holiday arrivals + the big Dress & Sweater Sale is here!
Michael’s, 9/26 — Now’s the Time for DIY Holiday Décor‏
Pier 1 Imports, 9/16 — We’re looking for great talent to join our holiday team.
Horchow, 9/16 — NEW for Christmas: 4 Holiday Collections‏
Walmart, 9/19 — Get more Halloween for your money‏
Pier 1 Imports, 9/19 — Don’t be scared to get your Halloween decorations now.
Target, 9/30 — Cyber Monday in September? Oh, yeah.
Under Armour, 9/24 — Go Pink Or Go Home.
NFLshop, 9/29 — Your Patriots Are 4-0! Plus, Free Shipping on All Patriots Gear
NFLshop, 9/7 — Gear Up Patriots Fans! PATRIOTS VS BILLS, Sun. 1PM + Every Order Ships Free!
SkyMall, 9/12 — Parking Lot Party! Save on Tailgate Essentials at SkyMall‏
Walmart, 9/12 — Make a play for game day savings‏
eBags, 9/29 — Celebrate National Get Organized Week With 25% OFF 1 Item + an Extra Treat Just for You!
Zappos, 9/5 — Sandal season is officially over…
Gap, 9/30 — The first fall chill is coming…
Crate & Barrel, 9/24 — It’s time. Outdoor furniture covers are now available.
Clinique, 9/26 — The “it” shade for fall—get it now!
Lululemon, 9/17 — try doing “it” everyday‏
The Container Store, 9/25 — Bloggers Love our Home Collection by 3M‏
Lenovo, 9/29 — The World’s Smallest Desktop‏
WebMD, 9/20 — The Scoop on Poop‏
Sephora, 9/13 — We’re bringing sets-y back‏
Beachbody, 9/10 — Do Vegetarians Live Longer?
Threadless, 9/12 — Wisconsin is made of cheese, and other facts…
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 9/13 — What if your child had 36 hours to live?
ModCloth, 9/5 — Pug + #selfie = best email ever.
Jeep, 9/5 — ●|||||||● Your Jeep newsletter is here.

Most popular posts on EmailMarketingRules.com last month

1. The Many Uses (and 2 Drawbacks) of Animated Gifs

2. Case in Point: Why You Should Audit Your Signup Process

3. The One-Two Punch of Subject Lines and Preheaders

4. Most Tweetable Tweets from Connections 2013

5. Sending a Welcome Series Is the New Onboarding Differentiator

Posted by Chad S. White

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Case in Point: Why You Should Audit Your Signup Process

Posted on September 25, 2013

Doing process audits may seem like a waste of time. After all, you probably won’t find anything major and there are lots of other things on your to-do list. But then again, you might indeed find something major and be super thankful you took the time to investigate.

Last month, I released the Email Opt-In Audit Imperative infographic that details research showing that more than a quarter of email signups that occur via the homepages of major B2C brands are not honored or experience significant delays in being honored. Since your most valuable email subscribers sign up via your website, these results are worrisome. And your homepage is just one of probably more than a dozen ways that subscribers join your list, so there’s potential for many more process breakdowns that could be slowing list growth.

Exhibit A: Just a few weeks ago I received an email from Lands’ End with a subject line saying that it’s “Been too long!” Typically that’s the kind of language you’d see in a win-back email where a subscriber hasn’t engaged in a long time, but in this case this was the first email Lands’ End had sent since their welcome email more than 6 months earlier.

It appears that they uncovered a glitch in their signup process whereas email addresses weren’t getting added to the active list properly, and this email was their way of rebooting the email relationship. I don’t know how long the glitch persisted or how many subscribers were affected, but I suspect there was a very significant opportunity cost associated with it.

Exhibit B: Lowe’s experienced something very similar a few years ago. In January of 2011, I received an email from them with the subject line “Sorry we are a little late, but great values like these are worth waiting for.‏” The account where I received this email was used to subscribe to Lowe’s emails more than two years earlier, and I hadn’t received any emails from them until this one.

Exhibit C (added 10/16): Northern Tool had a nearly identical experience as Lands’ End. It also took them more than 6 months to honor my opt-in. Their first email went much lighter on acknowledging the problem and apologizing. They choose to only mention it briefly in the preheader, but they did add a prominent unsubscribe link, wisely recognizing that after such a long delay that some folks might not be interested anymore.

Kudos to these brands for discovering these problems, taking actions to fix them, and reaching out to affected subscribers. My experience has been that the vast majority of these signup breakdowns go undetected for years or get fixed unknowingly when updating or upgrading systems.

Make sure that you’re not missing out on valuable list growth by auditing all your email acquisition sources—and if you can do it ahead of the holiday season, then all the better.

Posted by Chad S. White

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Most Tweetable Tweets from Connections 2013

Posted on September 23, 2013

ExactTarget Connections was awesome! Beyond meeting tons of great people, old friends and new, there was lots of great content that kept me busy tweeting for four days straight. We’ve already shared 100 Tweets About Leadership and the Power to Lead from Within and Josh Kimber shared the 25 Top Tweets from #ET13, but I wanted to highlight some of the tidbits that I thought were critical.

Before I do that, if you were one of the more than 1,000 people who got a free copy of my book, Email Marketing Rules, during Connections, it would be awesome if you would sent a tweet of thanks to @ExactTarget, which made the giveaways possible. Thanks and I hope to see you at Dreamforce in November and at Connections 2014.

Get “Email Marketing Rules” for Free in Honor of Connections 2013

Posted on September 17, 2013

In celebration of Connections 2013, ExactTarget is making the Kindle Book edition of my book, Email Marketing Rules, available for free today through Thursday.

Just visit Amazon.com to download it for free (no coupon code necessary) and then install the free Kindle app to read it on any smartphone, tablet or computer.

Through 108 easy-to-understand rules, Email Marketing Rules is your guide to understanding the practices that lead to spectacular results, while steering you clear of trouble. Jay Baer calls it “the best book ever written about email marketing,” and Internet Retailer Magazine says it is “a must-have for any email marketer.”

>> Get Email Marketing Rules for free—but only until the end of Connections.

Posted by Chad S. White

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4 Reasons to Update Email Images Post-Send

Posted on September 13, 2013

Broadcast email content doesn’t have to be static. By updating the image source files—in other words, saving a new image to the same URL path—you can change the content of an email after you’ve sent it. Here are four reasons why you might want to do that:

1. A Featured Product Has Sold Out

In Holiday Inspirations from the Email Swipe File, one of the 14 tactics we discuss is creating urgency, which is especially critical during the holiday season. To illustrate one way that’s done, we share a cool example from Bass Pro Shops where they update a product image with a “SOLD OUT” overlay.

This is the in-store equivalent of seeing an empty shelf. It makes you more receptive to the products that are still in stock and less likely to hold off on making a purchase. With this particular email from Bass Pro Shops, they were savvy in that they promoted two products in these flash sale emails, one of which seemed to always sell out very quickly—I assume by design—amping up the urgency on the other product offer.

2. The Offer or Sale Has Expired

Similarly, for limited-time sales and offers, you can…

>> Read the entire post on the ExactTarget Blog

Posted by Chad S. White

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Where You Can Find Me during Connections 2013

Posted on September 12, 2013

I’m super excited about next week’s Connections, which will be my third. If you’re attending, I’d love to meet you. Here’s where you can find me:

MONDAY
4p – 5:30p >> I’m attending the Town Hall with Scott Dorsey and Marc Benioff.

TUESDAY
9p – midnight >> I’m a featured guest at the Cloud Crawl Party at the Colts Grille (110 West Washington St.), where I’ll be hanging out with my esteemed colleagues Joel Book, Kyle Lacy, Chip House, and Dawn DeVirgilio.

WEDNESDAY
10:30a – 11:15a >> I’m attending the Retail & eCommerce Roundtable at the JW Marriott (Ballroom 10).

2:30p – 3:15p >> I’m presenting The Good, the Bad, and the Best: Practices for a Post-Wild West Email Marketing World in the Convention Center (Rooms 120-122).

5p – 6p >> I’m signing copies of my book, Email Marketing Rules, in the Client Listening Lounge. Bring your copy or get a free copy by completing a short survey to help us with our 2014 Predictions Research Project.

I’ll be around on each of those days, as well as on THURSDAY, attending sessions, hanging out at the Social Command Center and Social Lounge, and chatting with folks at the ET booth. I hope to see you there!

Posted by Chad S. White

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All-Star Email Marketing Author Session on Oct. 15

Posted on September 11, 2013

Wish you had your own panel of email marketing luminaries to answer all your burning questions? Well, this is your chance.

Join Simms Jenkins, DJ Waldow and myself for a unique webinar event on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 2pm ET, where you decide what questions we’ll answer. Plus, if your question is selected, you’ll win autographed copies of Simms’ The New Inbox, DJ’s The Rebel’s Guide to Email Marketing, and my Email Marketing Rules.

With four highly acclaimed email marketing books between us, rarely has so much email marketing knowledge been assembled in one place. Don’t miss the All-Star Email Marketing Author Session!

>> Register and Help Determine What Questions We’ll Answer

Posted by Chad S. White

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Five Predictions for the Email Marketing Holiday Season

Posted on September 10, 2013

For those marketers who already have visions of Christmas emails dancing in their head, here are my email marketing predictions for this holiday season:

1. Marketers will send more responsive emails on high-mobility days. After the last holiday season, the shift to mobile reading of emails is now unequivocally too big to ignore. Retailers have finally gotten the message and have made a mobile-friendly overhaul of their email templates a priority this year.

Most retailers have taken incremental steps, with many adopting mobile-optimized templates in recent months. But on the days during the holiday season when subscribers are most mobile—like…

>> Read my entire Email Insider column on MediaPost.com

Posted by Chad S. White

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Holiday Inspirations from the Email Swipe File

Posted on September 9, 2013

Already have visions of holiday emails dancing in your head? So do we. In Holiday Inspirations from the Email Swipe File, you’ll find festive examples of holiday emails that illustrate 14 important holiday email tactics, including…