Email Benchmark 2007

MarketingSherpa posted the free summary of its Annual Email Benchmarking Survey in a way that could teach Jenna Jameson a few tricks. Anne Holland and Tad Clarke have become masters of provocation and slow revelation.

And yet, beyond the sales tactics there are some rather interesting and not-so-surprising takeaways.

1. Email is not so bad. Two-thirds of B2B marketers and three-quarters of B2C marketers see it as having a growing impact despite the hype generated by the flavors of the week: social media, mobile communications, and widget marketing.

2. Conversion is all about the design of your forms. Appearance and ease of use can improve subscription options by 25-40%. Getting the design right means more customer engagement, more data capture, and more sales.

3. Email is like postal mail. It is a test and learn tool. You can’t just exploit it and hope for the best. And if you’re testing, landing page copy, offers, and subject lines give you the biggest return,

4. Designers need help. Eye-tracking tests show that recipients click everywhere, often in places designers didn’t plan for images and brand elements. You have to try to mentalize your audience without embedding so many links that they filter you as SPAM.

5. Email filters remove the 40% of registered email that people really want. SPAM filters are a moving ghost. They are usually triggered by keywords (eg, free, boobs), the size or number of HTML images, the number of direct links, the presence of an attachment, specific IP addresses, and other more subjective criteria. It’s still a game of cat and mouse to deliver the email that customers request.

6. As if you needed something new to worry about; you have to start thinking about mobile email. On the B2B side, blackberries are ubiquitous and the same penetration and impact will be felt on the consumer side before long.