Some Surprising Factors Affect E-mail Opens

An unopened e-mail is a marketing dud. While many articles focus on inbox placement and subject lines to boost opens, marketers may be surprised by four other factors underlying e-mail open rates, per a recent Direct Marketing News magazine article.  The article cites analysis by e-mail services provider Constant Contact of more than 100 billion e-mails sent mainly by small businesses to their subscribers in 2014 and 2015. The first basic factor affecting open rates is e-mail list size. While the average open rate was 22% for all campaigns, super-targeted campaigns to 35 or less earned an average open rate of 55% compared with messaging up to 7,500, which racked up 14% average opens. The solution for big lists is segmentation, Constant Contact concludes, selecting smaller audiences from the larger subscriber base for more targeted messages. The next surprise factor is the customer's domain. Per the study, e-mails sent to Comcast, Verizon, Cox and SBC Global domains had higher open rates, while messages to Gmail, AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo users had lower open rates. Next, the sender's industry vertical can impact open rate success. For example, the study found that nonprofits overall get the highest opens (29% average), while, at the other end of the spectrum, B2B consultants get only 13%. Finally, mobile-responsive e-mail is increasingly essential to high open rates, with more than half of e-mails now opened via a smartphone or tablet. For details from the study, go to http://www.dmnews.com/email-marketing/4-factors-that-impact-your-open-rates/article/436908/

Protect Your Marketing From Costly Lawsuits

Marketing missteps that blossom into costly lawsuits make daily headlines, but many marketers still assume it's a risk only for the "big guys" or the "other guys." A recent Target Marketing magazine article by Alex Baydin, CEO of PerformLine Inc., a marketing compliance company, brought home the increasing scrutiny and pain of regulatory enforcement for all sizes and types of marketers. He notes that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alone reported $19.4 million in remediation for noncompliant marketing practices in the last six months of 2014. Penalties for marketing violations can be onerous. Baydin cites a recent CFPB complaint against PayPal over online credit sign-ups for $15 million in consumer redress and $10 million in penalties, plus a recent $11 million judgment by the Federal Trade Commission against Ashworth College for deceptive marketing. Before you shrug off the noncompliance threat because you aren't a high-dollar player, Baydin also reports recent action by the Federal Trade Commission to punish two auto dealers in Alabama and California for deceptive advertising. He lists five basic steps to protect your marketing from similar suits and fines: understanding of existing and new regulations; tracking of marketing messages across channels; a dedicated compliance team; clear and enforceable marketing guidelines for employees and affiliates; and close attention and timely response to customer complaints. For details, read http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/marketing-campaign-going-get-sued/