There’s a lot of my education in the sciences that focused on how to get a statistically accurate sample. There’s a lot of math involved to pick the right sample size. Then there’s an equal amount of math involved to figure out the right statistical tests to analyse the data. One of the lessons of grad school was: the university has statistics experts, use them when designing...
Transactional mail
There are a lot of myths in the email space. Things that someone, somewhere said and another person repeated and then another person repeated and all of a sudden it is TRUTH. One of those things is the idea that there is a law defining what can be in a transactional email. Supposedly this law says that 80% of the message must be transactional content while 20% of the mail can be promotional...
Unsubscribe preference centers
I unsubscribe from a lot of opt-in lists around this time of year. I’m generally unbothered by a couple emails a week from companies I’ve purchased from in the past. But, a lot of these companies drastically increase their volume mid-November. I may not be averse to 3 emails a week, but that absolutely does not mean I want 2 emails a day. One of those vendors presented me with one of...
Data, data, elections and data
One of the interesting stories coming out of the recent US Presidential election is how much data the Obama Campaign collected about voters, volunteers and donors. Today Politico talks about how valuable that data is, and how many Democrats want to get their hands on it.
Data Driven Email (and other) Marketing
The frequency of emails from the Obama campaign ended up being a talking point for pundits and late night talk show hosts. Jon Stewart of The Daily show even asked President Obama about email directly during his October 18th interview. (Video, email question at the 5:56 mark) Jon Stewart: “We have been talking here for 12 – 14 minutes. I am curious. How many emails, in that time, do...
Targeting and Segmentation
MarketingSherpa has a great case study of a retailer that got a 208% higher conversion (purchase) rate for a targeted email sent to a small segment (10%) of their list. “These types of campaigns appeal to a specific group, and it’s important that we maintain the integrity of our list. Marketing the wrong message to our group is going to increase our unsubscribe rate and [hurt] the...
Data Cleansing part 2
In an effort to get a blog post out yesterday before yet another doctor’s appointment I did not do nearly enough research on the company I mentioned selling list cleansing data. As Al correctly pointed out in the comments they are currently listed on the SBL. And when I actually did the research I should have done it was clear this company has a long term history of sending unsolicited...
Don't always believe the statistics
Mark Brownlow has a great roundup of how statistics and data can mislead marketers if they’re not really paying attention.
Best time to send email: analysis and discussion
Mark Brownlow (who I don’t think is here in Ams, much to my disappointment) wrote a long assessment of how to determine what is the best time to send email. He walks through the questions and the data that a sender should evaluate when making the decision when to best send email. I have previously posted about my views on the best time to send email. There is no one best time to send email...
Best time to send email: redux
Last week I wrote about a study classifying different types of email users. My point is that senders should be very aware of how their users interact with email, in order to provide the best user experience and the most revenue for the sender. If, for instance, the bulk of recipients are daytime (9 – 5 M-F) users, then the best time to email is different than if the bulk of recipients are...