In the last few weeks several large marketers (like EDF) and email marketing platforms (like Salsa) reported that email service providers (ESPs) like Gmail and Yahoo! appear to be flagging “uninteresting” email as spam.  How does an ESP determine how interesting our email is?  They don’t.  Our subscribers do.  It appears the ESPs are determining whether or not our email is likely spam  - or at least “not a priority” – based on how often and frequently subscribers are interacting with email we’ve sent in the past.

You can imagine this is getting lots of folks in a tizzy.  In this longish post, we’ll examine how we got into this mess to figure out how we can get out.

Why Were We So Lazy for So Long?

I have to confess I’m a lot like you.  I was once lazy about email, too.  And, I know how you’ve justified being lazy, because I have told myself the same story.  We have always considered email to be “cheap.”  In contrast to direct mail where it costs me $1 to reach a customer, email has always been nearly cost-less at less than a penny to reach that same person.  And, in my head the logic went, if email costs nothing and with minimal effort I can attain any conversions at all, why on Earth would I try much harder than the absolute minimum?  I could send my whole million-person subscriber list the same version of a single email and get acceptable results.  Besides, there have always been plenty of things outside of email that I’ve been trying that aren’t working or desperately need more resources.

So, I asked myself, why segment and test and refine the subject lines, creative, copy, and offers?  The true answer is that the results were acceptable…25% of our messages were opened, 3% got clicks and some small but significant percentage converted to purchase or donate.

Now, we will be penalized for taking the lazy route;  blasting our whole list with the same message and same cadence to every subscriber.

Here’s what the team at Environmental Defense Fund and our friends at the direct marketing agency Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey (CCAH) noticed happening.  It appears that major ESPs – led by Gmail – have started giving email messages with low interaction rates the express route to your customers’ spam folder.  The resulting symptom was that they noticed lower interaction rates (opens/clicks) overall.  When the EDF team filtered out the nonresponsive email addresses from the Gmail domain, interaction rates and the actual number of interactions increased across the board.

It’s unclear exactly how the Gmail team and algorithm are making these decisions.  And, as Dan Atherton of CCAH pointed out in a phone interview, it’s not in Gmail’s interest to publicly share that information.  From an anecdotal (unscientific) sample, it appears that if you were to send, say 1MM emails and the first 100M get only mediocre open/click rates from your subscribers, the remaining 900M get lesser help toward the inbox.  Crazy, right?

“But,” you say, “I comply with deliverability requirements!”

In the old days (months ago) we could take this lazy approach to email and maintain good deliverability by staying in “technical” compliance with legal and ESP requirements.  We just had to be sure we were abiding CAN SPAM rules, configure domain keys, give subscribers a way to opt out, address spam complaints…and our messages were handled just fine.  No longer, my friends.

So, now, what can we do?

For the long run, we need to get our act together and finally bite the bullet.  We need to cowboy (or girl) up and focus on sending truly relevant and timely email messages or we could be forever relegated to the spam folder of our customers’ and constituents’ lives.

When I spoke with Dan at CCAH, we made a short list of the things any large mailers should do to stay on top of and improve the delivery of their email to their subscribers’ inboxes:

#1 Pay Attention to Interaction Rates by Domain
Monitor your interaction rates (opens/clicks) over time.  BUT don’t just look at aggregate numbers.  You’ll need to watch these rates by domain.  So, this way you’ll notice a sharp dip in interaction at Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.

#2 Short Term Fix: Filter Out Unresponsive Recipients
If you see a significant dip in interaction rates by domain, isolate the subscribers at that domain who haven’t opened or clicked in say three or six months time.  Suppress them from your next series of campaigns.  Assuming this is a significant number, you are likely to see interaction rates at this domain improve as more mail will get to the remaining subscribers’ inboxes rather than a low priority or spam folder.

#3 Get Serious About Monitoring Inbox Delivery
There are a number of inbox and performance management tools out there that can help you look closely at how mail’s being delivered and opened at various domains.  It’s unclear if they will be helpful to remediating the problem, but detection is key to managing your reputation.  Check out tools like ReturnPath and Pivotal Veracity that can monitor inbox delivery rates for you across lots of domains.  Remember, simple spam checkers that provide keyword analysis tools for spamminess (circa 2003) won’t work on this one.

#4 The Real Fix is to Know Your Subscribers and Deliver Value
If you’re going to solve this problem for the long term, you’ll need to make sure your email content and offers are relevant to your audience.  The better you know your audience and what motivates them, the better you’ll be able to develop content that they WANT to interact with.  If you can determine which of your subscribers are men, women, old, young, plugged in or tuned out, you’ll be able to get them content they’re interested in.

#5 For Extra Points, Consider Proactively Segmenting for Cadence
Consider that not everyone wants the same amount of email.  Some want every discount or alert you throw them.  Others want a weekly digest. And, hey, some of us only want the email for the summer sales spectacular (thanks, Patagonia!).  Consider creating a series of tiered target groups that send a maximum number of messages per month to group members.  Very few bulk email tools make this easy to do. But, many will let you create dynamic groups that contain subscribers who have opened “X emails in Y months.”  At the VERY least offer subscribers the chance to opt into a weekly or monthly when they sign up (or better yet) when they unsubscribe.

What do we do next?

What are you making out of these new challenges to sending email?  What are you doing about it?

Originally posted her: Say Goodbye to the Days of Lazy Email by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

First, let me offer a HUGE THANKS to the NTEN team and community for pulling off another amazing event.

Second, I’m happy to report I’ve whittled down my notes to THREE OBSERVATIONS from #12NTC that I would like to share with all of you!

I’ve been to NTEN’s annual conference for nonprofit technologists for the last 10 years.  And thanks to work, I’ve kept an eye on how the field, especially related to marketing technology, has gotten bigger, better, and reinvented itself several times over.

So outside of NSFW observations from a plethora of parties and receptions, I want to share these three interesting trends.

First: Brand Marketers and Direct Response Pros ARE CONVERGING on the National Technology Conference

At the turn of the century, most of the folks at NTC seemed focused on brand and program-oriented marketing initiatives and technology.  This included things like managing an organization’s Web site, looking at aggregate notions of measuring success, and creating the next killer digital content library.  Most of the attendees (myself included) held the keys to their organization’s Web site, mass email, and social presences.

BUT most of us didn’t know diddly about traditional approaches to direct response marketing, like the 40 year old disciplines of direct mail and telemarketing.  For years the brand and direct sides of the house just operated in silos, completely separate from each other.  In many organizations these two sides of the house even battled over who owned the dollars that came in from direct mail versus email.

This year I saw a huge jump in the number of folks representing traditional DIRECT response disciplines.  Lots of organizations sent their managers from not just email programs but also from the direct response side of the house.  I talked to at least 25 analysts and mailers.  I saw firms at NTC that traditionally worked with the direct marketers — those selling data, providing analytic services, and dropping direct mail — who’ve never been to NTEN’s conferences before.

Take Away: We are slowly entering a new era of collaboration. Cats and dogs are lying down together.  This is one trend I hope and believe will continue in the right direction.

Second: Segmentation Sounds Great, But Nobody’s Got the Time

I heard this trend expressed by at least three email marketers for $100MM+ fundraising organizations.  They all said basically the same thing.  “Yes, we get the idea that if we send more relevant, segmented email to our constituents, we’d likely get people to donate more, take action, and register for our events.”  But in the next breath, they quickly followed with, “We just just don’t have the time or staff to do it.”

Why is this?  If you said, “Hey man, you could make 30% more income next year if you invested a little more over here” I’d say, “Yeah, sign me up!” It’s sounds counterintuitive that companies and brands can’t or won’t make the investment in segmentation to create better relationships with their constituents. Especially when up to 80% of a company’s sales can come from as little as 20% of their customers. Even though I’m sure it’s a question of competing priorities, the results speak for themselves.

Take Away: This year I want to figure out why people aren’t doing investing in segmentation and how I can make it easier and a higher priority.

Third: Few Radical Innovations BUT Evolution of Existing Tools Continues

This isn’t a criticism, but it seemed like most of the presentation titles could have been recycled from six years ago.  The topics of getting your organization on social media, engaging constituents with mobile outreach, and focusing on usability have all remained core themes.  What’s interesting is that as a community, our approach to addressing these things has continued to evolve for the better.

Take Away: Every year there are more and more studies and tools and collaboration around solving the most fundamentals challenges around getting our constituents engaged.

Thanks much to NTEN for making the 2012 conference a success!  We’re stoked for the conference next year, in Palm Beach!

Originally posted her: Three Marketing Observations from #12NTC by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

With the final day of NTC ’12 also comes the final morning run with our Rocky Mountain boys! We know, we know. You couldn’t be more excited. Who wouldn’t be itching to roll out of bed extra early and follow Peter & JP on a leisurely 3 mile loop? Just remember, tomorrow will be your last chance to ENTER TO WIN that $150 gift certificate to Newton Running!

To help you lace up those Nike’s as the suns cracking tomorrow, we’ll leave you with these little gems about our most dedicated athletes: Peter “Go Big or Go Home” Genuardi,  JP “Bites of More Than He Can Chew” Lind, and Andrea Steffes-Tuttle, a.k.a captain competitive.

See you all bright and early!

After waiting 4 years in the lottery, Peter finally ran the NY Marathon in October of 2011. Everyone in the office was so proud of him, no one had the heart to give him grief when he took a “healthy” recovery period, running just 5 miles in the last 6 months. He’s hoping you’ll help remind him of joy of running! 

JP  foolishly signed up for Leadville 50 this summer while under the impression that sporadic 3 mile runs leading up to the ultramarathon would be sufficient preparation. He’s convinced they’ll have the necessary multiplier effect at lower altitude if coffee or beer are supplemented. Perhaps you can give him some “refreshing” when you see him tomorrow morning?

Andrea regularly spends the summer months registering for races that have fewer than 100 registrants and cater primarily to young children and the elderly, so that she can place in her age group and accumulate an assortment of awesome trophies and medals for her personal display and self-validation.

Originally posted her: Giveo Runs NTEN’s NTC 2012 – Andrea, Peter, & JP by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

If you attended the Beyond the Like: Social Media Birds of a Feather (12NTCBirds) session, you probably noticed that no one from Giveo showed up to moderate the session.

We are sorry; here’s what happened.

We submitted several proposals for NTEN sessions and our top-shelf social media guru @caseyhopkins proposed the birds of a feather session. We’ll, Casey moved to another great gig and I stopped checking her email months ago.  We totally missed the fact that the good folks at NTEN accepted our proposal for the birds of a feather session.

So again, I’m very sorry.  DM me on twitter and I’ll buy you a drink or coffee or pho to make up for it.

Originally posted her: NTEN Friends: Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

“I was cut from the varsity basketball team (probably because I was 5’5″ and weighed 120 lbs) so the coach said, ‘…you’re fast, so I’ve talked to the track coach and he wants to try you out for the relay squad.’ So that afternoon I went out for track and got put on the 4×400 relay team. I was put with 3 other guys who were track stars–two went on to play D1 football, at Texas A&M and Georgia. So, the coach put me on the starting blocks with them, fired the gun, and off we went. About 50m in I was in the lead, and I was thinking to myself–”Wow, I’m as fast as these guys!” I was giving it my all, running like Forrest and thinking a lot of myself. Then, I heard the coach yell “switch,” which, unknown to me at the time, meant “switch gears,” and instantly all 3 passed me like I was standing still. They were two corners a head of me about 15 seconds later, and I promptly ran straight off the track and into the locker room. Yes, my track career lasted about 5 minutes. The end.”

Don’t forget friends, the first run leaves from the Hilton San Francisco at 7:15am tomorrow morning. We look forward to seeing you there!

Originally posted her: Giveo Runs NTEN’s NTC 2012 – Jeff “Forrest” Nunn by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

To make the whole idea of rolling out of bed bright and early for a training session with these two stallions that much more attractive, we’re going to sweeten the deal for all you dedicated dashers:

-       Peter will be carrying a boombox over his head playing the euphonious sounds of Bob Marley for the entire run to help you keep that perfect cadence.

-       JP will be leading yoga-centric stretches pre and post-run and offering sound advice on training for double marathons at +10,000ft.

-       Those that choose to frolic in the streets of SF with the boys will have the chance to win a $150 Newton Shoes gift certificate!

WAIT… WHAT’S THE CATCH?

No catch here folks. In fact, you can ENTER TO WIN even if you don’t plan on joining us for the run. We’ll just call this our way of GIVING back to all those attending the Nonprofit Technology Conference. The boys figured, “we’re going to run anyways, why not share in the fun?” In fact, to ensure you fully appreciate our dedication, we’ll be leaving a little Giveo running anecdote here on our blog every day leading up to and during NTC ‘12 to show just how committed we really are.

And don’t worry. You won’t need a running resume a mile long to join the festivities. The boys will lead runs that will appeal to joggers of all skill levels! Every morning they’ll start from the Hilton San Francisco, run a 3 mile loop, and return you right back to the hotel lobby so you can clean up for NTC. In fact, Peter was kind enough to lay out the route on mapmyrun.com if you would like to have a look at it beforehand.

On a parting note, we’ll leave you with this little tidbit about our Marketing Associate, Chris and his first “comeback.” See you next week!

Chris, came back with a vengeance from a bad ski accident in 2009 gaining his leg strength back on his first pair of Newton shoes (he’s also our sworn “fan boy” of the group). In fact, he’s such a dedicated runner, he managed to injure himself setting a record-shattering 10k PR in March of 2010… in his first ever 10k… destroying his chances of running his first ever half marathon… the one he had spent the previous 8 weeks training for. Chris’ middle name was from thenceforth known as, “way to go genius.” 

Originally posted her: Giveo Runs NTEN’s NTC 2012 by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

But In That Time, We Also Learned A Lot.

By collaborating with our clients and listening to their needs, we found many of them were facing challenges when marketing and advertising on the Web. We began to realize there was a disconnect for many companies in their efforts online — the gap, was between direct marketing and their social engagement efforts, both extremely important tools in a swiftly evolving digital world.

We then asked, how could we better empower these marketers? What if we could fuse customer and social data together to create actionable information? How would a marketer improve their targeting if they could identify their strongest social influencers? What if they knew the value of their social audience and what they’re spending money on? We wondered, how would they target a customer if they knew from their social conversations that they were talking about buying another one of their products – or a competitor’s? Answering those questions and in turn, closing the gap in customer data to lead to better ROI, became our goal.

Enter, Our Solution.

After many long hours developing and perfecting, and out of our passion to provide marketers with the tools they need to be innovative and strategic, SpotRight was born. SpotRight’s platform and solutions can help you make the connection between your customer data and their rich social conversations using deep audience data. It’s with this data, what we call “Customer Intelligence,” that you can create a stronger marketing program that returns more value, reduces churn, and improves the overall relationship you have with your ideal consumer.

We have always strived to be a resource that enables brands to better understand their audience in order to more effectively engage them, and now with SpotRight, bridging the gap between direct and digital marketing can become a reality.

From all of us on the Giveo team, we thank our partners, fans and followers for many successful years. We look forward to helping you open a dialogue with the customers you’ve always wanted with SpotRight!

Visit SpotRight.com, follow us on Twitter or “like” us on Facebook to learn more. Or sign up to speak with a consultant today!

Originally posted her: Bridging the Gap: Introducing SpotRight by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

It breaks down like this.

It’s a pretty interesting concept.  If you know who’s “most active,” you can create personalized and targeted content for the “most actives’” and not worry as much about the rest.  The likely result would be increased participation rates of that group.

BUT Here’s Why His Findings Don’t Mean JACK to Direct Marketers
Nielsen’s punchline was to say that we can get the participation rates up if we encourage participation with good usability and design.  He’s right, I can’t disagree.  But, user experience doesn’t mean JACK to most direct marketers who can’t control much of what the Web site looks like.  Also, while his analysis is useful in theory, in a direct marketing world it’s useless if you can’t find, describe, and engage that 1% of your total audience.

So, Why Am I Excited About This NOW?
I was initially curious, but underwhelmed by the concept because I couldn’t apply it to the work I was doing.   Now, as a guy who helps organizations get more direct response (purchases, donations, action) from their constituents I can leverage this phenomenon.

It boils down to this:

On any given email file, the top 1% and trailing 9% are the most active and valuable people to your social marketing programs.

How do I know this?  Read on.

Finding the Most Influential and Active
Using Giveo’s discovery engine, I can look at an email audience and see who is on any of 100 social networks to develop an understanding of their demographics, what they’re doing online, and where they spend money.  I’ve looked at millions of records through the engine and can see similar patterns beginning to emerge.

Roughly (not scientifically) in a given email file, it breaks down like this.

Making it Actionable
Knowing this, we can do three things that make finding the other 1% a useful concept for direct marketers.

Find the Other One Percent (and the next 9%)
We can look into an email file with the Giveo Discovery Engine and find people with a higher likelihood to contribute and motivate others.

Target the Right Places
Because we can find out where these folks are spending time online (e.g. Twitter, not YouTube or Pinterest) we can make investments in content and advertising where we know they will be.

Make Them Offers that Are Hard to Refuse
Since we can also look at their demographics and spending habits, we can develop offers and content that are more likely to get them to respond than some generic offer.

We’ll share more on the “how” of engaging these groups. For now, I’m just stoked we are getting a more narrow focus on the 1% who can make the most difference.

What’s Next?
Have you built campaigns targeting your social “influencers” and “actives?” How did you define influence and what did your campaign look like?

Originally posted her: Why I FINALLY Care About the Other 1% by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

In the meantime, we’d love your support.  If you can spare a few bucks, consider supporting us.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

BEFORE

SET YOUR EYES TO STUN

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

AFTER

Originally posted her: Team Giveo/SpotRight Takes it Off for Kids with Cancer by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing

From farming and clean water to embroidery and egg cartons—hundreds of applicants put their name in the pot this year for an opportunity to become an Unreasonable Fellow. Forty-six finalists were chosen and each has been given the opportunity to raise funds for their venture on the Unreasonable Marketplace. The Marketplace allows people from all over the world, the chance to support the venture of their choice to determine which entrepreneurs move on to become an Unreasonable Fellow and attend the 2012 Institute. The first twenty-five ventures to raise $10,000 move on to the Institute.

The Institute gives these twenty-five visionary entrepreneurs the opportunity to work with world-class mentors, initiate relationships with twenty impact investment funds, pitch to hundreds of investors and get six weeks of food and lodging to help get their venture off the ground and begin to make a serious impact through social business.

Talk about enabling innovation.

How is Giveo Involved?

In 2011, Giveo was approached and enthusiastically agreed to the task of creating a platform to enable the marketplace. Entrepreneurs needed a place to create and feature their venture information and interested supporters needed a place to give. So, voila! The Unreasonable Marketplace, powered by Giveo was born! We are so honored to have the opportunity to be a part of such an innovative and inspiring program.

Marketplace Progress

So far, 11 ventures have hit the $10,000 mark and there are several others closing in on the goal.

Not that the Unreasonable Institute needed any validation, but there has been some serious traction for the 2012 program. Coverage from media outlets such as Forbes, ABC News and the New York Times has garnered some serious buzz around the program and the incredible team behind it.

What Now?

Visit the Marketplace and learn more about the incredible work these entrepreneurs are doing. Then, pick a venture and give!

Follow the Unreasonable Institute on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the incredible work they’re doing.

Originally posted her: An Unreasonably Awesome Program by Giveo Giveo. View the full site here Giveo - Data + Marketing