November 25,2011ByDAVID VEGA

When to remove email addresses…

Brands

When to remove email addresses We have developed a simple strategy to help you decide if, and when, to remove an email address from your opt-in list. I recommend these 4 steps to establish which addresses are truly inactive, and which fall into the unemotionally subscribed group. Step 1 Start a reactivation campaign. Try to re-engage anyone who hasn’t opened an email for more than 6, or even 12 months. Step 2 Separate your lists. Anyone who still hasn’t opened an email after the reactivation campaign should be placed on a separate list to your active recipients. Step 3 Send the same email to each list and focus on activity. The active list will now show a truer representation of engagement and your results will not be dragged down by the dead email list. After every mailing (or month), move anyone who becomes active again to your active list, and anyone on the active list that now qualifies as inactive by your definition to the inactive list. You can now clearly identify how much revenue is generated by emailing the dead addresses versus how much it is costing you. Step 4 Analyze over time before deleting anyone. Within 6 to 12 months you’ll have a much better sense of how long you should continue to email an unresponsive email address before removing it from the list. We have generally found it to be the point at which almost every person who opens an email for the first time in a while goes on to unsubscribe. So that’s the way we see it. What’s your view? By Guest Expert....

November 21,2011ByDAVID VEGA

Inactive subscribers are still valuable to your brand…

Brands . social media

Inactive subscribers are still engaged Inactive subscribers are still valuable to your brand and can generate a significant amount of revenue. It makes perfect sense to stop emailing someone you know would never buy your products again or who actively dislikes receiving your emails. But long-term inactivity isn’t a good indicator of whether someone falls into that category. There are 5 reasons why your subscribers may be – or appear to be – inactive: They want your email, but haven’t needed your product for a while. You’re receiving false negatives – your email is optimized to be read with image blocking on, so some subscribers could be opening it without you knowing. The subscriber doesn’t want your email, but doesn’t care enough to unsubscribe. Email address churn – the subscriber no longer uses or rarely checks that email address. They don’t see your email because it goes into the junk folder. By far the largest group is the first one – we call these people the unemotionally subscribed. They will happily ignore your emails until they’re ready to buy, because it’s easier than unsubscribing and having to remember your URL or Google you later. We’ve gathered plenty of evidence on this group and demonstrated that while they might not read an email, they’re still a very important customer base. For example: One of our clients generated $120,000 from subscribers who had not opened or clicked on the previous 25 to 40 emails. Another saw 14% of revenue generated by subscribers who did not open or click a single email. Common marketing advice would have been to delete those subscribers after a year’s inactivity. But by retaining unemotionally subscribed addresses, the client brought in a significant amount of additional revenue. by DAVE CHAFFEY...

November 18,2011ByDAVID VEGA

Mobile Retail Websites – Upgrade your Storefront today..

Brands

Upgrade Your Storefront with mobile retail websites! Consumers Increasingly Turn to Mobile Retail Websites As They Shop to Find Products, Special Offers and Competitive Prices Mobile retail websites have emerged as an indispensible in-store tool for consumers as they shop, according to a new survey conducted by Hipcricket, an Augme Technologies, Inc. company (OTCBB: AUGT). The fourth annual Hipcricket Mobile Marketing Survey revealed that consumers”particularly smartphone owners”are turning to mobile retail sites as a critical tool for locating the products they want, searching for coupons and special discounts, and comparing prices at competitors’ stores. Sixty-three percent of smartphone users have visited a retailer’s website from their mobile device”up from 53 percent in 2010”and 41 percent have done so while in the retail store. Of interest, 50 percent have checked a competitor’s mobile website while in another store. While mobile retail sites have historically served as “brochures,” lightweight versions of retailers’ full websites that provide limited information such as store locations, directions and hours, today’s mobile-specific retail sites are now providing more significant benefits to consumers as they move along their path-to-purchase. The survey found that smartphone owners are visiting mobile retail sites to: Research prices (46 percent);Search for coupons and offers (36 percent);Research products (28 percent); andPurchase products (13 percent) In general, consumers are finding more value in the mobile Web. Seventy percent of all smartphone users regularly use their phone to access the mobile Web, second only to SMS/texting among media usage on mobile devices....

November 18,2011ByDAVID VEGA

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Goes Mobile [VIDEO]

Brands

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Goes Mobile [VIDEO]. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is getting a technology update for its 85th year by way of an official mobile app. The Parade app will be available on both iOS and Android ahead of next Thursday’s event, and feature a route map, NYC tips, a wifi hotspot finder and a way to track specific participants in the parade. You can see some of the app’s features in the video above. Macy’s says that all of the features will also be available on the Parade website. Will you be tuning into the parade this year? Let us know in the comments....