Under 60 Character Email Subject Lines Increases Open Rate

From the Center for Media Research comes the following post:

According to eROI's latest email marketing survey, The Elements of Email, email marketers are missing opportunities to increase their deliverability, opens, clicks and conversions. The study examines several elements of an Email, recommending that readers test their positions to compare to prevailing practices.

50% of the respondents say they use the company name as the best "from" name choice, while a third say it's based on the campaign. Responses are based on the question: How do you address your "from" line?

The Company... 50.89%
Depends on the Campaign... 31.95%
Individual... 17.16%

Email authentication verifies messages, allowing recipients to automatically recognize the nature of each incoming communication. About 60% of marketers do not know how they authenticate email. Of those that do, Sender ID is the type of authentication used by the majority, with Domain up about one-third. Based on "How do you authenticate your email?" the response is:

Don't Know... 55.07%
SenderID... 32.16%
PF... 28.19%
DomainKeys... 24.67%
DKIM... 10.13%

Many companies avoid blacklists by verifying senders and certifying the email they send. These services are growing, but are still used by only about 25% of marketers. With the majority of email marketers not currently doing this, a large opportunity is presented. Methods of certification include:

None... 70.09%
Sender Score... 10.28%
Other... 10.33%
GoodMail... 7.94%
Habeas... 7.01%

Email marketers seem to be paying close attention to the content of their subject lines, finds the study. 75% say they try to ensure subject line relevance to the content of the email and 50% focus on keeping it concise.

Studies have shown that using a subject line with 72 characters or more gives added relevance, with click through and conversion tending to increase. By going with a 60 character or less subject line, the open rate will tend to increase. The area between 60 and 72 has been shown to be a "dead zone," according to the report.
Respondents report subject lines as follows:

Relevant content... 72.57%
Short and to the point... 50.44%
Testing subject lines... 28.32%
Personalized... 19.03%
Other... 2.21%

Nearly 30% of marketers duplicate their site navigation in email. Of those, 15% find it more effective than the main content in driving clicks, while 11% of marketers find their navigation converts better than the main content of their email.

Magazine Websites Stats Beat Other Sites

Traffic to consumer magazine websites in the second quarter rose 8.5% over the same time period in 2007, it was announced today by Nina Link, President and CEO, Magazine Publishers of America. Consumer magazine websites averaged 69.7 million unique monthly visitors* during the second quarter of 2008 while 64.2 million unique visitors logged onto magazine websites during the same span in 2007. The increase is more than double the rate of growth for the overall U.S. Internet audience, which rose 4% in the second quarter. The information is based on a MPA analysis of Nielsen Online-supplied data from 314 consumer magazine brands online.

The analysis also showed that the average second quarter monthly reach for magazine websites grew to 42.2% of the total U.S. Internet population, posting a 4.3% gain over second quarter 2007. Magazine website users accounted for an average of 462.8 million sessions per month during the second quarter, a 9.9% improvement over the same period last year, in which an average of 421.1 million sessions were recorded.

Magazine websites were stickier in Q2 2008 compared to Q2 2007. Visitors to magazine websites spent an average of more than 2.05 billion minutes per month during the second quarter, resulting in a 21.5% increase versus the same three-month period in 2007.

"This latest data shows that the audience for magazine brands continues to grow," said Ms. Link. "Visitors to our sites are attracted to our filtered content and unique voice, and they want to be part of the vibrant community that flourishes around great magazine brands."

They Want it Their Way

A new consumer segmentation analysis from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) shows that nine percent of U.S. adults belong in the "Ads on Emerging Media Vehicles" segment, the group of consumers who say they are most interested in advertising delivered via such non-traditional media as mobile devices and product placement in video games, movies and in TV shows. The median age of this segment is 35.5, younger than the median age of the other five segments.
Ads delivered via mass media are preferred by 17% of U.S. adults, and an additional 17% of consumers are most interested in ads delivered in print. 32% of U.S. all adults are either disinterested in advertising delivered by any medium or they have not been exposed to a particular ad platform.
The 9% of U.S. adults who prefer "Ads on Emerging Media Vehicles" are far more likely than the average adult to agree with the following statements.
A celebrity endorsement may influence me to consider or buy a product.
I'm always one of the first of my friends to try new products or services.
I follow the latest trends and fashions.
Brand name is the best indication of quality.
Anne Marie Kelly, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI, says "Consumers who prefer advertising messages delivered through their mobile devices and product placement tend to be younger, pro-innovation, pro-celebrity and pro-fashion... this segmentation analysis helps them to target... consumers most receptive to their media plan." -- plucked from the Center for Media Research's latest newsletter.

Always do right, Twain said

Although I am now in a business management position with our media company, I still consider myself a journalist at heart. It's all I ever wanted to be and I am fortunate that over the past 30 years in media, advertising, public relations, and internet development I have never strayed too far from that passion for the written word, in whatever form it is delivered.

That said, since I was a kid reading Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and other classics, Mark Twain has been a hero of mine. I share with you today, this quote from the estimable Mr. Clemmens:

"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest."
-- Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

Online Video Viewing Surges

According to data from the comScore Video Metrix service, U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during March, 2008, representing a 13-percent gain versus February and a 64-percent gain versus March 2007.
In March, Google Sites ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 4.3 billion videos viewed (38 percent share of all videos), gaining 2.6 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 477 million videos, followed by Yahoo! Sites and Viacom Digital.

Other notable findings from the March survey include:
• 73.7 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• 84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).
• 47.7 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (8.4 videos per viewer).
• The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes.
• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.

Less Than Half of Advertisers Use Online Display Ads for Branding

From our friends at the Center for Media Research comes the following, cut and pasted in its entirety becasue I am too lazy to edit today. My comment? All advertising--even lead generation efforts--had better be about building your brand or you are wasting your money.

"Marketing Sherpa, in it's inaugural Online Advertising Handbook with 2008 Benchmarks, using both primary and secondary research, reports that less than half of advertisers use online display ads for branding purposes, despite overall increase in branding effectiveness of online ads, low click rates getting lower, and 80% of all clicks coming from the same 20% of all Internet users. According to the report, to choose an advertising strategy that will affect ROI, not clicks, marketers surveyed said the two tests they ran that were most likely to "significantly increase ROI" were online ad effectiveness studies and online focus groups.

The included eyetracking study shows that most individuals don‘t see most ads served to them -- especially ads served below the fold. And, says the Executive Summary, media delivery reports rarely include information on whether, or what percentage of, a media buy was served above or below the fold. According to the included chart of placement results, just being above the fold makes a significant difference.

The study notes that advertisers rate the ability to use behavioral and contextual targeting to be important as key ROI drivers, and quotes InsightExpress research, showing that targeting is a key driver of effectiveness and that ads are more effective in 2007 than they were previously.

The summary concludes that the key takeaway for advertisers is that the context in which an ad is served is just as important as the ad itself.

28 Million Mobile Subscribers Responded to At Least One Mobile Ad

From the venerable Center for Media Research comes this recent post on the troubling (to me, at least) continuing breach of the cellphone by aggressive, and apparantly successful efforts to induce mobile users to respond to display advertising on their devices.
As a marketer and media professional, I applaud the development of a new medium that can help sell our customers' products and services. But as a heavy smartphone user (for email, text messaging, web browzing for specific info like weather, directions and news), I must admit to annoyance at being pitched on my 2-inch screen when I am looking for something specific. We'll get used to it in time, I suppose.
Anyway, here is the statfest from Nielsen as reported by CMR:
"According to a new report from The Nielsen Company, twenty-three percent (58 million) of all U.S. mobile subscribers say they've been exposed to advertising on their phones in the past 30 days. Half (51% or 28 million) of all data users who recall seeing mobile advertising in the previous 30 days say they responded to a mobile ad.The bi-annual Mobile Advertising Report from Nielsen Mobile, of more than 22,000 active mobile data users, reveals that:
The number of data users who recalled seeing mobile advertising between the second and fourth quarters of 2007 increased 38% (from 42 to 58 million subscribers)
Teen data users (ages 13-17) were the most likely age segment to recall seeing mobile advertising (46% recalled seeing some type of mobile advertisement, compared to 29% of all data users)
Asian-Americans and African-Americans are more likely to recall mobile advertising (42% and 40%, respectively) than all data users
26% of those who saw an ad responded at least once by sending an SMS text-message, the most popular ad response. 9% say they've used click-to-call to respond to a mobile ad
32% of data users said they are open to mobile advertising if it lowers their overall bill
13% (18% of males) said they are open to mobile advertising if it improves the media and content currently available
14% said they are already open to mobile advertising so long as it is relevant to their interests
23% expect to see more mobile advertising in the future (up from just 15% in Q1 2007)
While just 10% of data users said they think advertising on their mobile devices is acceptable, an increasing number of mobile users appear to understand the value proposition of ad-supported mobile content, says the report
The report concludes that advertising researchers must examine the ways in which audiences are and are not willing to engage with mobile advertising, as media companies and marketers explore the unique ways they can interact with consumers supporting mobile media content through advertising revenues."

Email Segmentation Works

From SubscriberMail comes this press release:
With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, everyone has green on their minds. If you’re an email marketer, there’s a lot of “green” to be made by following some simple email segmentation guidelines from SubscriberMail that are guaranteed to bring some Luck o’ the Irish to your email marketing program.

1. Guinness or Harp? Not everyone is a Guinness drinker so why treat everyone the same? Take the time to get to know your subscribers’ preferences, then deliver the content that is relevant to them. By segmenting your email lists, you can send customized messages with tailored offers that result in a better return for your campaign.

2. The Pot o’ Gold. Dynamic content is an email marketer’s pot o’ gold because it is an easy way to send individualized content to many subscribers. With dynamic content you create a single email message and the dynamic content engine delivers multiple versions of the message based on the recipients’ demographic profile or other data. Messages can be customized to replace groups of text or images based on variables such as a subscriber’s personal data, past purchase history, past email activity, website activity, etc.

3. Shamrocks & Luck. What would shamrocks be without luck? The same is true when it comes to email personalization. Most email marketers use name personalization, but “where’s the luck?” Personalization allows you to insert any text for which you have a data field. Here are some other examples for using personalization: contact information for a salesperson in the recipient’s region, location information for the closest store, or a reference to a recent purchase.

4. Crafty as a leprechaun. To gather the most information possible about your subscribers, you don’t have to be crafty, just smart. The best way to collect information is when subscribers sign up to receive your emails. Periodically ask subscribers to re-register and gather data to make sure their information is up-to-date. Finally, you can gather subscriber information by conducting a short survey and offering a premium or prize for participating.