I’m a big believer in the idea of a preference panel that gives your subscribers the opportunity to tailor the emails they get from a company. This panel should be available in every email. It is probably the most valuable information you can get about a subscriber - more then metrics, behaviour, all of that - to craft emails they’ll actually want to receive. If possible, it should include a frequency choice.

But how do you get them to update it after they’ve originally signed up?

Here’s a terrific example by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). It’s based on the idea of the interstitial ad - the ones that pop up in between one destination on a website to another. In this case it comes up as you click an article link on the homepage of the newsletter. You can either update your profile - or continue on to read the article.

I’ve consistently come across this fact in the many trend/analysis reports I’ve put together for our B2B customers: The recipients of their monthly newsletter do not generally read every issue - but almost always read at least one in three issues.

It’s been an amazingly consistent metric whenever I perform this exercise. For example, with the  Business of Email monthly newsletter my general unique identified opens per issue is 23%. Across three issues it is 63%. I have seen some instances with clients in which it is 96% across three issues.

It’s a good metric to track periodically - to be slotted in alongside your regular issue-by-issue and 6-12 months trending. It can give you a ‘bigger picture’ as to how your readers are engaging with your newsletter. The 1-in-3-issues metric also reflects, I believe, the way business people interact with email that they do like to receive. It comes down to the matter of time or lack thereof. The latest edition arrives in the inbox when they are travelling and they don’t bother trying to catch up - just delete. The next time an issue arrives, they do have time. Another scenario - they are researching a purchase for the company, and are just collating all information they receive on the topic (such as your newsletter) for a full read at their convenience.

You can only measure this metric across three monthly issues when the recipients are fairly static - meaning that it’s pretty much the same subscribers across those three issues.  You collate all the identified readers, counting them only once, and calculate the percentage against the average number of emails delivered each time for those three issues.

Do you assume that all activity for your mailings happens within the first 24 hours? We’re all pretty busy -  travelling, on holiday, away from the computer (gasp!) and may not get around to engaging with your email right away.

To figure out the optimum time to check your stats, benchmark them over several issues. For example, I’ve just finished tracking my own Business of Email and have identified day ten as the best time to take a look at the statistics.

By analysing total activity (clicks, microsite visits, opens) day by day over several issues, I was able to assess that, on average, 71% of all activity happens within the first 24 hours, and by day 10, typically 95% of activity has been captured. I selected 95% as the benchmark for my own analysis purposes.

A terrific line up of speakers.. and the break out sessions will cover three strands: B2B, not-for-profit or B2C.

I’ll be chairing the B2B session … hope to see you there!

Conference details

Who: DMA UK
What: A Practical Guide to Email Marketing
Date: Tuesday, 4 November 2008
Time: 9.00am - 4.30pm
Venue: Thistle Marble Arch, Bryanston Street, London W1H 7EH

Agenda

9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 Chair’s welcome Jonathan Burston, Sales Director, CACI

9.40 Keynote address: Calling all email marketers: who’s best in class?

Jeanniey Mullen, CMO, Zinio and Founder, Email Experience Council
Dylan Boyd, VP of Sales and Strategy, eROI

11.10 - 11.30 Refreshments and networking

11.30 Seven ways to improve email response and revenues
Stephanie Miller, Global Markets Analyst, Return Path

12.00 Subject lines - length is everything
Dela Quist, CEO, Alchemy Worx

12.30 - 1.30 Lunch

————————————————————————–

1.30 - 3.30 Breakout sessions - Choose from one of the following sessions:
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Session 1: Business-to-Business

Chair: denise cox, Newsletter Specialist, Newsweaver

Newsletters, blogs and search engine optimisation
Kath Pay, Managing Director, Ezemail

Myths and realities
Guy Hanson, Business Development Director, Database Group

Desigining for today’s inbox
Steve Kemish, Client Services Director, Adestra

Deliverability do’s: reaching the inbox
Will Schnabel, Vice President and General Manager of International Markets, Silverpop

Session 2: Business-to-Consumer

Chair: Simone Barratt, Managing Director, e-Dialog EMEA

Designing for today’s inbox
Steve Kemish, Client Services Director, Adestra

Deliverability do’s: reaching the inbox
Will Schnabel, Vice President and General Manager of International Markets, Silverpop

Improving the results of your email campaigns
Tamara Gielen, Director of Email and Digital Dialogue Strategies, OgilvyOne

Myths and realities
Guy Hanson, Business Development Director, Database Group

Session 3: Not-for-profit

Chair: Richard Gibson, Commercial Director, RSA Direct

Deliverability do’s: reaching the inbox
Will Schnabel, Vice President and General Manager of International Markets, Silverpop

Desigining for today’s inbox
Steve Kemish, Client Services Director, Adestra

Myths and realities
Guy Hanson, Business Development Director, Database Group

Hitting the Heart - A study and comparison of 15 well known charities
Simon Bird, Technical Director, dotMailer

3.30 - 3:50 Refreshments & networking

3:50 The future of email marketing
James Bunting, Head of Client Services, Communicator Corporation

16.20 Chair’s closing remarks
16.30 End of day

To Book:

Phone: Hannah Lang on 020 7291 3344
Email: hannah.lang@dma.org.uk
Cost: DMA members: Standard £295.00 + VAT (£346.63); Charity/sole trader £250.75 + VAT (£294.64)
Non members: £425.00 +VAT (£498.75); Charity/sole trader £361.25 + VAT (£424.47)

Besides sounding like a great conference - I love seeing email, search and social media “mixed” together - I’m writing about this Marketing Profs event because I’m a speaker in the Email Track.

I’ll be on the panel “No One Buys Enterprise Solutions Online: B2B Email Newsletter Strategies”. (Email track schedule) I’ll also be conducting some one-on-one sessions during the conference - “where attendees get to sit down, outside the speaking sessions, with a real live email expert and chat about their program, get a review, get some counsel, get a few ideas, etc.”

Conference information, schedule for all the tracks, and booking.

Hope to see you there!

• Dec 3 : How do you get existing subscribers to update their preferences?
• Nov 14 : B2B newsletters: Trend each subscriber across three issues
• Oct 9 : When’s the best time to check your stats after a mailing?
• Oct 3 : 4 November. London. DMA Conference: “A Practical Guide to Email Marketing”
• Sep 29 : MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer. 22-23 October, Arizona