Second Chances

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Andy

It happens all the time in online marketing. A user clicks on your ad only to drop out of the funnel before converting into a sale or qualified lead. Perhaps the offer just wasn’t right. Perhaps the timing was off. Regardless, this population of non-converted clickers is ripe for retargeting. Can you do that with a Marketfish email campaign? Absolutely!

Marketfish offers several ways to retarget people who have opened or clicked on your campaign.

Purchase Contacts – The easiest way to retarget is to purchase those contact records from the list owners. Many list owners offer this option, and Marketfish makes it easy. Just click on the “Purchase These Records” link on your campaign report, and we’ll facilitate the process for you.
Display Retargeting- Another option is to retarget via display advertising by taking advantage of our industry partnerships and creating custom targeting segments for use with the Doubleclick Ad Exchange or the Google Display Network.
Demographic Reports – A third option is to run follow-up campaigns with Marketfish, selecting only previous responders as recipients. Our Demographic Reports make it easy to follow-up with your active clickers. We can also tell you a plethora of additional demographic information about your campaign’s engaged audience. This info is invaluable for campaign/messaging refinement.

Regardless of the option you choose, if you’re not retargeting, you’re missing a valuable second chance to convert recipients who have already indicated interest in your offer. Make sure retargeting is a central component of your next campaign. Our client service representatives can walk you through the available options and help choose the ones that best maximize the efficiency of your marketing dollars.

How have you used campaign retargeting to generate improved performance from your lead generation initiatives?

Data 101

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Ryan

At Marketfish, we take data very seriously. Hosting quality data in our platform is critical to our ability to deliver our service offerings. With such a focus on data, you might imagine that we have a few thoughts on the subject. So, here’s the process that Marketfish goes through when selecting a data partner. This process is a tool that you can use to assess the quality of your own data partner.

The best lists are always permission-based and authorized to receive third-party marketing offers. These lists should be permissioned on either a single or double opt-in basis. Double opt-in is preferred. There are also “forced” opt-in lists. This category includes lists permissioned around pre-checked boxes. We don’t consider “forced” opt-ins a best practice, and therefore, try to avoid lists permissioned in this manner.

Once a list owner meets these basic criteria, we then further qualify the data source. We always check a potential list owner’s privacy policy. It’s essential for Marketfish to ensure that the customers on the list are aware that they have opted to receive third party offers. Additionally, we always ask for a sampling of records from the potential list provider, this allows us to evaluate their quality. On a similar note, we ask for a data dictionary so that we can see what kind of information is captured in the list provider’s records. We also require a screenshot of the opt-in page so that we can verify that the records are obtained in an ethical manner.

Finally, when we ingest data into our platform, we require that every record contain three pieces of data: time & date stamp, IP address, and opt-in URL. This allows Marketfish to mitigate potential customer complaints. We can go back and show customers exactly when they opted-in to a particular list. Of course, we are fully CAN-SPAM compliant, and therefore require that any advertiser or marketer that uses our platform to include an opt-out URL within their email creative. This ensures that any customer, who wants off a list, gets off that list.

There you have it, the Marketfish data partner vetting process. We try to make this as comprehensive as possible so that we can hand our customers the quality data they need. If you have any questions, comments, or thoughts on our process, please let us know.

The Customer Dating Game

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Sherin

Acquisition email marketing is like dating. Better yet, it’s like blind dating. It can be awkward, uncomfortable, and irritating if not approached in the right way. On the other hand, if a connection is made, it could result in a pleasant and welcome surprise. Making a connection is only the first step though. You really want the phone number at the end of the night. In marketing terms, this is called the conversion.

Retention email marketing is like a marriage. You’ve known each other for a long time, and you’re there through the good times and the bad. There is a mutual trust, and an established relationship. Similarly, your existing customer base is composed of customers that have already engaged with your brand and are eager to hear more. Conversely, new customers don’t know you yet, and in order to convert them into regular customers, it’s important to position your brand accordingly.

So, how do you end up marrying your next blind date? It’s simple. You just need to understand your audience. Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your next acquisition email marketing campaign:

Introduce Yourself- You wouldn’t hug your blind date the first time you meet that person, would you? Similarly, with acquisition email, you want to ease into the relationship. Provide some background about your brand, and introduce yourself to your prospective customer.
Short and Sweet – Saying too much right off the bat is like talking about your exes on your first date. That conversation is for later. Give prospects the best you have to offer, and keep it relevant. They can hear all the dirty details once a connection is established.
Keep it Simple – Pulling out a flashy, image heavy, email creative is like showing up to your first date wearing sequins head-to-toe. Sure, it gets you noticed, but not necessarily in a good way. ISPs operate the same way. A third-party marketing email that is image heavy will likely be flagged as SPAM and end up in the junk folder. However, once you have established a relationship, ISPs will be much more lenient in regard to the types of creatives that end up in the inbox.
Be Confident – This is your time to make an impression. Develop a strong offer that pulls in new customers. Be clear about your intentions, and have a primary call-to-action. This will eliminate confusion on the user’s end, and route them appropriately to your landing page.

All great relationships start with a wonderful first date (well, most of them). So, make your next acquisition campaign count. Happy dating!

If you have any other tips for developing a stellar acquisition email campaign, please leave a comment. We always love to hear from our readers.

Creative Half-Life: Watch your Open and Click Rates

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Andy

No matter how carefully you target an email marketing campaign, you’re not always going to reach the right recipients with the right message at the right time. With ISP’s now using recipient engagement metrics in their decision whether to route emails to the inbox, only the best creatives and subject headers are going to have a prolonged period of effectiveness. If open and click rates don’t meet the necessary thresholds, ISP’s will route future sends to the bulk folder, quickly diminishing the effectiveness of your campaign. When we look at delivery data across multiple Marketfish clients, the ones who are prepared to frequently update their subject headers and creatives are the ones with the greatest prolonged success.

As a self-service list marketer, what signs should you look for to determine whether your creative or subject header is worn out? Watch your open and click rates. On the first day of a campaign, your emails are likely to get the benefit of the doubt from ISP’s. They’re clearly not spam, but are recipients excited to get them? ISP’s will typically let the first wave of emails through to see how people are responding. Those initial open and click rates will tell both you and the ISP how well your emails, when delivered to the inbox, are likely to perform. If engagement declines on subsequent sends, that’s a good indicator that your emails are starting to be routed to the bulk folder. Left untended, open rates will continue to decay, and you’ll soon be paying more than you should for clicks that drive leads to your business.

Fortunately, as long as you’re willing to respond, the ball is in your court. You control the subject header and creative. When open and click rates start to drop, change them promptly, and you’ll get a relatively fresh start with the ISP’s. Be prepared. Work with your creative team before the campaign to produce multiple subject headers and creatives and don’t hesitate to use them. The success of your campaign may depend on it.

Testing – The Marketfish Way

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Sherin

Lists, lists, lists. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of lists floating around out there. And clients ask me all the time, “What’s the best list on your platform?” Well, I’m here to tell you that there aren’t any secrets lists, there’s no special stash hidden away in our closet next to the umbrellas and office supplies. At Marketfish, what you see is what you get. So, you needn’t fear, we have good news: there are no bad lists on our platform. Our philosophy is simple; we try to provide all the tools you need to make smart decisions about your business’ list rentals. We hand pick each of our list partners to ensure that they are all of the highest quality for our clients. It’s true though, that each list performs differently depending on the offer. That’s why we always recommend testing multiple lists.

How can you make the most of your Marketfish tests? Here are a few easy things you can try.

Use several lists on your campaign, even if it means only taking a small subset of the list. That way, if one list doesn’t perform with your offer as expected, you will have several other choices to fall back on. This will also help you determine which list to put your campaign dollars towards on future sends.
Use several cuts of the list. Let’s say the HRWatch list is perfect for your human resources target. Try adding two subsets of the list to your campaign, one specifically targeting HR Managers and one targeting HR Directors. Since we give you list by list reporting, you can better determine who is more responsive to the offer.
A/B Testing. The newest feature introduced to the Marketfish platform will help you understand what offer best grabs your audience. We give you the opportunity to test two different creatives and/or subject lines for each campaign. This is an extremely powerful tool, one sure to provide the data you need to make the best offer to your target audience.

These three simple steps are sure to improve the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts. Feel free to share the ways that you utilize testing in your own campaigns, or if you just have a comment, please share!