Silverpop

As many companies today cut back on catalog circulation and other marketing activities hoping to simply survive this rough stretch in the economy, smart marketers should seize this opportunity to grow market share and strengthen their businesses. This is the message that came out of a recent whitepaper, How to Beat the Bear: Seven Secrets to Recession-Proof Marketing, from e-mail marketing firm Silverpop on recession-proof marketing tactics, from which several tips are provided here. 1. Determine your metrics. Figure out exactly where your upper management stands in measuring success in terms of return on investment (ROI) and what levels of return it expects. This

As Internet service providers (ISPs) try to shield their customers from unwanted messages, oftentimes permission-based e-mail marketers are caught in the crosshairs. E-mail delivery firm Pivotal Veracity reports that one out of every five permission messages is filtered mistakenly as spam. Therefore, reaching the so-called “promise land” in the form of ISPs’ “whitelists” is the destination for all multichannel marketers. Whitelists are designated lists of trusted senders. Getting on whitelists greatly improves the chances your message will get delivered. E-mail strategy, solutions and services provider Silverpop recently published the whitepaper, Unlocking the Secret World of Whitelist: Insight for Enterprise E-mail Marketers, to help

Marketers are turning to advanced strategies and technologies to ensure their e-mail messages are delivered properly and welcomed by their recipients. But many companies need outside help and decide to hire an e-mail service provider, or ESP. In a recent white paper, Atlanta-based e-mail service provider Silverpop Systems offers advice on choosing the right ESP for your needs. Here are some of the firm’s top tips. 1. Focus on your needs first. Assess the state of your e-mail marketing program and decide what you need to accomplish now and in the future. Establish a business case, goals, timeline and budget before starting the vendor search. 2. Decide

Transactional e-mails, those key customer touchpoints that marketers typically use for purchase confirmations and shipping notifications, among others, offer the opportunity to reach customers with additional cross-sell and upsell opportunities. But not many online merchants use them for such promotional purposes. A recent study by e-mail marketing solutions provider Silverpop found that just 21 percent of online merchants use any kind of promotional content in transactional e-mails. Given that properly targeted offers in transactional e-mails can generate as much as $500,000 in additional annual revenue, according to JupiterResearch, this channel seems rife with potential. And in its recent report, Silverpop revealed the following

Small changes to the creative elements of e-mail messages can boost customer response by 50 percent or more, according to a study recently released by e-mail solutions provider Silverpop. For instance, business-to-business e-mails with the company or brand name in the subject line experienced an average open rate of 32 percent, compared to just 20 percent for messages without branded subject lines. Following are other data Silverpop found it its analysis of 612 e-mails sent by 430 companies. * Business-to-consumer e-mails with the brand or company name in the subject line received open rates of 29 percent on average; * B-to-C e-mails without the

“The possession of a large database of loyal customers and qualified prospects is the foundation upon which successful e-mail programs are built,” write the authors of e-mail marketer Silverpop’s recent “E-mail List Growth Survey.” And because e-mail list growth is so critical, Silverpop further revealed the three most successful list growth strategies according to survey respondents. 1. Search engine marketing: More than 50 percent of marketers say that search marketing is a moderately to highly successful method of building their e-mail lists, Silverpop officials reveal. These programs work best when paid search landing pages include an e-mail registration form with easy accessibility and visibility.

Eighty-two percent of catalog and online merchants with active e-mail programs remove customers from their e-mail lists immediately upon request, according to a study of opt-out practices conducted by e-mail marketer Silverpop. Here are other findings from the study: * 8 percent of merchants continued to send e-mail beyond the 10-business-day limit set by Can-Spam. * 6 percent of merchants took up to five days to handle opt-outs. * 4 percent took between five and 10 days. * 67 percent of merchants use the term”unsubscribe” to describe the opt-out procedure to customers. * 18 percent use alternate wording. * 13 percent use the term

Of 175 catalogers with e-mail programs, e-mail marketer Silverpop found that between March and May of this year, 75 percent offered e-mail signup directly on the homepage, while 3 percent used a pop-up at the homepage to collect e-mail addresses. Other data revealed by the study: * 75% offered an incentive to customers for providing their e-mail addresses * 45% of those catalogers offered sales and promotions as an incentive * 14% offered newsletters * 11% offered a catalog or other form of direct mail * 2% offered a prize For more information on Silverpop’s “2005 Retail E-mail Marketing Study,” visit http://www.silverpop.com/news/press/05_26_05.html.

In the era introduced by the Can Spam Act, how can you make sure your e-mails aren’t immediately being filtered into a junk folder? Sender authentication recently has emerged as both an opportunity for direct marketers to identify themselves and a tool to identify illegal spammers. Stephen Guerra, e-mail communications strategist for Atlanta-based Silverpop, a provider of permission-based e-mail marketing solutions, answers common questions about sender authentication and how it works. Idea Factory: How will sender authentication help direct marketers? Guerra: Sender authentication will first benefit direct marketers by allowing them to clearly identify themselves when sending to Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Secondly, it will help the

Furniture and home accessories multichannel merchant The Bombay Company has made aggressive strides into e-mail marketing during the past two years. The results have been worth the effort, says Matt Corey, vice president of marketing and e-commerce. The Bombay Company has 650,000 opt-in names on its e-mail list and successfully integrates its campaigns with those of its retail, catalog and e-commerce channels. Donna Loyle, editor in chief of Catalog Success, asked Corey to share the secrets of his success in e-mail marketing. Catalog Success: What mechanisms did you use to go from 20,000 opt-in, or registered, e-mail names to 650,000 in only two