Author: Tony Macpherson

Your email open rates are changing

Posted by Tony Macpherson
October 6, 2021March 8, 2022

Unless you’ve been living on a remote island somewhere you’ll know that on September 20th Apple’s iOS 15 update was launched, containing a feature call Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) which – amongst other things – will eliminate the ability to accurately track email open rates. For the uninitiated, email opens are recorded using a tiny image in the email code. When the email is opened, that image loads, which tells the sender an email was opened, by whom, when, where and on what device. What Apple have done is add a ‘middle man’ into the mix, first routing emails through their own proxy servers to pre-load email content – including the tracking image – before serving the email to the…

Read more 

Does marketing to third party email data work?

Posted by Tony Macpherson
June 30, 2021March 8, 2022

The answer is it very much depends on how you do it. Often seen as the dark side of email marketing, sending messages to email addresses who did not sign up directly to your brand is frowned upon by many. It’s easy to see why – my inbox is already a busy place and I can do without even more emails I didn’t ask for thank you very much. As with your email marketing efforts to your first party lists, there are a host of things to get as right and as tight as possible. Data is king Long term success needs good data. Third party lists should be collected fairly and with transparency. People need to understand what to…

Read more 

Is it time to review your email strategy?

Posted by Tony Macpherson
August 28, 2019

We all have an email strategy, whether it be sending regular newsletters or sales offers or more sophisticated automation programs catering for a range of content, personalisation and triggers. The digital world is fast moving and always changing, so a regular review of how you’re using emails to communicate with your customers and subscribers can help keep engagement levels high. Here are the some of the more common email communications and processes that should be regularly reviewed. TMI on sign up If your proposition requires more information from subscribers, such as a membership or access to resources with a value, consider a two stage sign-up process – the first is a quick and easy ‘add me to your email list’…

Read more 

Rules of engagement

Posted by Tony Macpherson
May 9, 2018

Advances in technology continue at a relentless pace as does our use of – and reliance on – mobile devices. Everywhere you look, indoors and out, we’re buried in our small screens. We are the biggest captive audience ever but getting and keeping our attention is increasingly difficult. We are exposed to a huge array of social media destinations, emails, websites, apps and streaming services all competing for our eyes and our time. In many markets, retailer loyalty has been eroded by a best-price mentality and the ease at which we skip around places in our virtual worlds means getting the attention our products and marketing efforts deserve is ever more challenging. Marketers need to keep pace with consumers, ensuring…

Read more 

Making emails more useful part 2 – content marketing

Posted by Tony Macpherson
January 26, 2017

Previously I looked at making emails more useful for your subscribers in order to improve engagement through relevance and targeting. But you can become even more useful through content marketing. Sending helpful, informative, or entertaining information can help retain customers and increase customer lifetime value, which helps your bottom line. B2B companies have been using content marketing in emails for a while, this blog is an example as a summary will end up in our email newsletter. B2C emails have some catching up to do and should look to move away from the common layout of blocks of products available to buy. Paradoxically, despite a plethora of tracking tools and modelling algorithms, customer lifetime value is increasingly difficult to nail…

Read more 

Will you still love me tomorrow – how to use post-sales automated emails

Posted by Tony Macpherson
October 19, 2016

As email marketers, we all know it’s the channel that gives the best ROI and the emails which get the best open rates are ones sent after the transaction is complete. These include automated order confirmations and delivery notifications so it’s important to get right them right. Tinder culture In a world where retailers are a click away from a competitor, it’s tempting to keep jumping to the next option in the hope you’ll find a better deal. Most customers now have the attention span of around eight seconds so making sure you deliver them the right content immediately is critical to reduce distractions from a myriad of online things they can do. Today’s promotional environment has made shoppers highly…

Read more 