Marketing challenges
Remember when GDPR was announced and everyone thought it was the beginning of the end of email marketing? Well, we weathered that storm, and we’re ready to do the same again. Being a marketer is all about rolling with the punches and adapting to the ever-changing landscape that is digital marketing. At Dotdigital we immediately jumped into action and planned out how we can mitigate these changes for our customers. We’re pleased to say these changes have now been implemented and our customers have new ways of working with iOS 15 in mind. What’s changed? There were two key changes in the iOS 15 update, Mail Privacy Protection and Hide My Email. Mail Privacy Protection allows iOS 15 users to load email content privately, and not reveal their IP address. This means senders are unable to track opens, forwards, and the recipient’s precise location. Not ideal. Hide My Email allows…
We often witness customer service landing at the bottom of the operational strategy and investment funnel. It might have been the right approach decades ago, but not anymore. Whether you are a B2B or B2C business, customer service is paramount in today’s customer-centric world. Reports show 59% of consumers have higher expectations for customer service than they did just one year ago. When it comes to success, support is equally essential as sales and marketing. Providing top-notch customer service helps grow your brand value and cultivates a long-term loyal customer base. Over time, customer support has emerged as a vital revenue driver, translating into increased sales and customer retention. The support bug doesn’t stop once the customer decides to purchase your product, it extends way beyond that. Multi-channel support In today’s digitized world, with multiple channels at our disposal, it has never been easier for businesses to connect and communicate…
It is predicted that Halloween sales in the US will hit a new record, exceeding $10 billion in 2021. What a treat. Read on to learn some of our favorite Halloween email tips and tricks to bewitch your customers. Gamification Halloween is a great opportunity to send out some really fun and engaging emails. It’s the perfect time to utilize gamification and up your engagement. Clinique used gamification last Halloween, offering a free gift with purchase – once you complete their game of course. A game is always a fun challenge many will try out even if they don’t have any intent on purchasing, but once they ‘win’ a freebie or a discount code, they might just convert. Remember to always have a fallback version, and to test in a few different email clients when using gamification or more complex designs than usual. Dress up Embrace the Halloween spirit and…
Like the 2020 holiday season, 2021 will present some unknowns that marketers will need to adapt to, but there are plenty of things we do know that can help us prepare for the upcoming busy period that our businesses depend on are going to need to adapt. We’re here to help you stay ahead of what’s to come and provide you with resources that will help you to meet rising customer expectations. Here are some frequently asked questions and resources to help you kick off the holiday season. Should I be sending to everyone on my list for Single’s Day / Black Friday / Christmas / New Year’s to maximize my results? Be strategic! Show recipients that you respect them and that they’re more than just a number in your marketing database. Inbox exhaustion due to the sheer volume of emails being sent to recipients during the holiday time is…
Whether it’s sending an email out to your database, posting on social media, or publishing a blog… the fear that you’ve not noticed a mistake is real – and surprisingly common. Whether you’re emailing a few hundred, or a few hundred-thousand, no one wants to send out something that isn’t perfect. We all remember the Zavvi incident from a couple of years ago right? Entertainment retailer Zavvi accidentally emailed their entire marketing database telling them all that they’d won a competition, with the coveted prize being Champions League Final tickets complete with hotel, flights, and cash. With a personalized first name field too. *Shudders*. The ASA then got involved and it was an all-around sobering moment for those of us in email marketing. Of course, human error can happen in any profession, and although a mistake can feel terrible at the time, no one’s life depends upon it. What causes…
During the busy festive seasons, even the most efficient marketers can expect to see greater variations in deliverability results than during quieter periods. Recipients are overwhelmed with email at this time of year, so may not engage with content as they normally would. By increasing the volume being sent, you can decrease the average list engagement. Email providers are under a heavy load due to receiving the influx of seasonal emails, and they are likely to see the decrease in engagement coupled with the increase in volume as a sign that your emails don’t belong in the inbox. This can result in a further decline in the success of your emails, even when sending relevant content such as real promotions to encourage interaction. We don’t recommend taking risks with your data ahead of the busy period – as recently discussed in our festive spamtraps blog post. However, if you are…
The festive season is upon us and everyone is getting ready to send their best offers and campaigns to their databases. During this time recipients are receiving a lot of emails as businesses try and reach large revenue goals. One of the common challenges during the holiday period is list churn. Recipients change their email addresses, report messages as spam, and unsubscribe. Interests change over time and something you would subscribe to five years ago is something you are no longer interested in. Some people just signed up to get a welcome reward, others might have found a better offer and some might have not got what they were expecting or received too many emails. Ultimately, there are a lot of reasons why recipients unsubscribe. With the sheer amount of marketing emails in people’s inboxes respecting unsubscribes is more important than ever. Unsubscribes are great Yes, you read that right.…
In our previous post, we chatted about the brain works when it makes a purchase decision (check it out here), but how do you take all that neuroscience and *actually* use it? We mentioned how nurture plays a significant role in helping the brain decide to buy, but how can you make that happen for you? We’re not about vague theories that have no real application! So let’s take a look at some practical applications for using these insights as we walk through 5 ways to pack a punch with the purchase formula in your very own campaigns. 1. Welcome campaigns Never underestimate the power of a really good welcome campaign! The very first time a new contact joins your list, you should roll out the red carpet. When you provide a fantastic welcome and wow campaign you’re able to provide the brain with context as to why you do…
It’s the time of year when there’s the strongest incentive to skirt around some best practices and send as much email as possible to try to maximize revenue. However, the last thing you want to deal with during the critical holiday sending period is delivery or inbox placement issues. Sending to old data or data collected under less than ideal circumstances significantly increases the risk of degrading your sender reputation, reducing the chances of you reaching the inbox – even for recipients who are fans of your brand. Sending in this way also carries the risk of severe inbox placement issues or your emails being blocked entirely – especially if you send to a spamtrap. Reputation damage can take a long time to repair and could negatively impact your ability to generate revenue from your emails for weeks or even months. In this post, I’ll provide advice on the lump…
Good marketing helps communicate whether or not a product is right for the end consumer in a way the brain understands. A little bit of insight into the neuroscience around how we make those decisions can go a long way to helping you create your own marketing masterpieces; so let’s take a look at how the brain makes a purchase decision, what the purchase formula looks like, and what that means for your email automation. How the brain makes a purchase decision The brain uses a purchase formula to decide whether or not to buy a product or service – it’s a very specific process that you can watch if you have your own fMRI scanner at home… If you don’t have an fMRI scanner in the front room, not to worry. The lovely Professor Brian Knutson and his colleagues at Stanford university did it all for you! They ran…