Email Marketing Resources

We've written quite a bit lately about the Mobile Email Marketing Revolution -- namely, that a growing chorus of research firms, Wall Street brokerages and good old fashioned common sense is predicting that the day when more people access and interact with the web and email on mobile devices than on PCs is rapidly approaching. (For some mind blowing stats, check out Mobile Email Marketing: Stats for Thought and Mobile Email Marketing: More Stats for Thought).

We are pleased to introduce our new “Ask the Expert” series on the Pivotal IQ blog, featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with some of the email industry’s most interesting and knowledgeable people.

Our first guest, Chris Wheeler, director of deliverability for Bronto Software, works closely with ISPs and marketers to promote best practices and optimize email deliverability. He has become a well-known industry expert through his active participation in key councils and committees, and frequent contributions to the Deliverability.com blog, Email Experience Council blog, The Email Guide and The Email Zoo.

Retailers sent a record number of marketing e-mails on the day after Thanksgiving and the following Monday, according to a study by e-mail marketing services provider Smith-Harmon. However, another study suggests that many of those messages may not be reaching in-boxes.

On the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, 69% of major online retailers sent at least one promotional e-mail, up from 59% in 2008, according to Smith-Harmon’s Retail Email Blog. On the Sunday after the holiday, 45% of retailers sent at least one promotional e-mail, up from 36% last year, making Nov. 29 the biggest Sunday ever for retail e-mail marketing. And, on Monday, 71% sent at least one promotional e-mail—a slight bump from 70% a year ago—yet the most popular retail e-mail day of all-time. Click here to read PV's Deirdre Baird weigh in on Holiday Deliverability...

Almost one-quarter of e-mail messages sent on Cyber Monday didn't reach the inbox, according to new data from deliverability services firm Pivotal Veracity. The waves of messages being sent out on one of the busiest e-commerce days of the year resulted in only 76.2 percent of campaigns being successfully delivered. Depending on whose data one looks at, marketers these days generally report deliverability percentages in the 80s and sometimes as high as the mid-90s. Click here to read what PV's Len Shneyder has to say about Holiday Deliverability...

The volume of e-mail marketing messages sent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday hit an all-time high this year. However, according to e-mail vendor Pivotal Veracity, message deliverability was an issue for marketers.

According to the Retail Email Blog, which is run by Smith-Harmon, 71% of major online retailers sent at least one promotional e-mail on Cyber Monday, up 1% from last year. On Black Friday, 69% of major online retailers sent at least one promo message, which was up from 59% in 2008. Click here to read PV's Michelle Eichner weigh in on Holiday Deliverability...

Yesterday we released our latest deliverability study, which showed that nearly one in four opt-in email marketing messages were not delivered to recipients’ inboxes on Cyber Monday. Celebrated as the busiest day of the year for e-commerce transactions, this past Monday saw inbox delivery rates plummet to a 7-day low of just 76.2%. 

Soaring volumes caused problems because a) ISP networks and delivery queues were overburdened with everyone mailing at the same time and b) faced with pressure to drive a ton of web site sales, many marketers mailed to inactive segments of their lists (which also has long term negative consequences).

One in Four Emails Sent on Crucial Online Holiday Shopping Day Never Made it to the Inbox, Shows Data from Pivotal Veracity

PHOENIX, Ariz., December 2, 2009—Nearly one in four email marketing messages were not delivered to recipients’ inboxes on Cyber Monday, according to new deliverability data released today by Pivotal Veracity, the industry leader in cross-platform email deliverability and optimization solutions. Celebrated as the busiest day of the year for e-commerce transactions, this past Monday saw inbox delivery rates plummet to a 7-day low of just 76.2%.

AOL made an announcement last week about its enhanced whitelist—an internal list of low-spam-complaint mailers whose messages get delivered with graphics and links intact—that, in and of itself, has little effect on most marketers who use e-mail.

The note has vast implications, however, on where ISPs' spam-filtering techniques are headed and what marketers had better start doing if they want their e-mail lists to continue to perform. Click here to read Deirdre Baird's email engagement insights...

AOL announced today that they are changing how the Enhanced Whitelist works. For those that don't know there are effectively two whitelists at AOL, the regular whitelist and the enhanced whitelist. The standard whitelist is open to any mailer who meets the basic requirements, the enhanced whitelist has historically been comprised of the top IPs with the lowest complaints of the standard whitelist. Emails that qualified for the enhanced whitelist would arrive to the inbox with links and images enabled and turned on.  The enhanced whitelist isn't going away but according to Christine of AOL, the method by which IPs will be added to the enhanced whitelist have evolved. 

A little over 10 days ago I wrote about deliverability in the first 11 days of the holiday season and how it was reflected in industry wide benchmarks. It's time now to look at the next 11 some odd days as our run up to the all important Black Friday is no longer on the horizon but quite literally at our door steps.