Does size really matter?

We recently ran some interesting reporting from dotMailer, looking at campaign open and non-open rates versus number of sends, across the whole dotMailer user base.

The results

Our reports showed that for email marketing campaign sends to address books containing 500 to 5,000 contacts, the average non-open rate is 69%.

That’s an average 31% open rate, which is above the average overall DMA benchmark open rates*.

The average open rate in our report includes a range of campaign types and senders, including client campaigns and campaigns to ‘colder’ prospect data, so as an average open rate it's a healthy one.

Niche campaigns

We then looked at the average non-open rate for campaigns sent to between 50 and 500 contacts.

For these campaigns, we found the figure drops to 61%. So for campaigns where a smaller group is targeted, open rate increases by an average of 8%.

We can make an assumption here that these campaigns are sent to smaller groups because they are more targeted, niche campaigns, with more relevant content (rather than bulk, blanket sends).

Based on this assumption, the reporting seems to clearly back up the assertion that targeted email leads to better response metrics.

Large scale campaigns

To test this point further, we next looked at the metrics for campaigns sent to address books of more than 5,000 contacts.

Here, we found that the non-open rate grew to 74%.

That’s 13% less openers than for campaigns sent to a target group of 500 or less.

Overall the average open rate of 26% across all campaigns in this 5000+ contacts category is a number these senders should be pleased with, as it takes into account both client campaigns and prospect campaigns.

The takeaways

The key message here is not that you should mail small or large groups of people.

It is that you should apply the same level of targeted messaging and content to large target audiences as you would to a very small group.

Use data segmentation and dynamic content to tailor your offers, your message and your subject line so you are not emailing one large data set, but a series of smaller segments with differing profiles and needs.

And always use subject line split testing. An advantage of sending to large groups is you have a larger sample to split test against, and can pull more accurate split test results.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity afforded here, to maximize your open rates.

* DMA National Email Benchmarking Report Q4, 2008: Average unique open rate for acquisition campaigns = 15%. Average unique open rate for retention campaigns = 19.5%.

Build it or buy it - a developer's tale

By Andrew Gretton

Here in the development team, we're always kept on our toes by the pace of dotMailer’s growth. (dotMailer recently passed the 10,000 user mark, and our user base continues to increase rapidly).

As well as adding new features, we're all eager to trim down on the resources taken up by our existing code, to make your sending, segmenting, and surveying happen faster than ever.

This optimisation is something we managed to do in a really big way recently.

Because we're an ESP, you probably think of us as an email sender - and we're proud to say we're very good at it!

But we are of course an email receiver too - not only do most email marketing campaigns generate reams of "out of office" messages, bounces, and replies - but we do get sent a fair chunk of spam too. One of our big challenges is to make sure you get all your replies, and none of the spam.

Until recently, we'd been using a great piece of software developed by another company - this handled our inbound mail very well.

Software development is constantly about the "build it or buy it" dilemma, and whenever the development team has a requirement, we'll first check out what's available already.

If we find a good commercial or open source solution, that's great - it can speed up delivery times of the features you're all requesting.

Several years ago, we felt happy that buying was the answer for this part of our infrastructure. As our client base has increased, though, it's become clear that we needed a solution that could grow as fast as we are.

So we sat down and built our own.

And so the LIME was born: the Lightweight Inbound Mail Engine. This nifty piece of software performs the same task as the old one; but it uses only 5% of the resources, and runs much faster too.

All of which means that behind the scenes we're continually developing a faster, leaner, meaner dotMailer, to make sure you can turn your campaigns around in double-quick time, and get fast efficient reporting.

All this, no matter how many thousands of your fellow marketers are using dotMailer at the same time!

New research on email marketers' 'pain points'

By Cliff Guy

Last week we sent an email to several thousand email marketers, inviting them to take part in a survey designed to benchmark how they rate their email marketing activity.

The survey called for a certain degree of honesty from our fellow marketers, as we were asking them to score themselves (or their organisation) from weak (score of 1) to strong (score of 4) against 7 key aspects of successful email marketing.

In short, we wanted to know where they were comfortable, and where they were feeling some pain.

I'm glad to say that email marketers are an open and honest bunch and we had a great response to the survey. There are some revealing trends in the results, that show where marketers know they need to be doing better with their email marketing, or what they need to be doing more of.

The key areas where email marketers highlighted 'room for improvement' on their own part were the use of database building and segmentation, dynamic content and triggered email campaigns.

• 55% of respondents rated their use of database building with a score of 2 or less, out of 4


• 65% rated their use of data segmentation with a score of 2 or less, out of 4


• 87% rated their use of triggered email campaigns with a score of 2 or less, out of 4

So clearly, you are not alone if you think you should be using triggered email campaigns more!

It seems to me the bottom line of the findings from this research is that marketers know they should be sending more precisely targeted campaigns.

Some may be struggling here because of a knowledge gap about what they can do and how to go about it.

For those in this group, I recommend you download dotMailer's storming, definitive guide to great email marketing - our annual Hitting the Mark email marketing benchmark report.

Others may know what they need to be doing, and how, but simply not be able to find the time to do it. A managed email marketing service can help in these cases, particularly for major campaigns with significant revenue or outcome riding on them.

dotMailer can certainly help here with our Professional Consultancy Services and Managed Services.

The message is then, that if you're feeling the strain of not knowing exactly how to get where you want to be with your email marketing, or how to find the time to get there - you are most certainly not alone, and there are people here to ease your pain.

dotMailer finalists in National Business Awards

By Cliff Guy

Good news for all the dotMailer and dotDigital Group team today - we've been shortlisted as finalists in the National Business Awards 2009, in the Best Growth Strategy category.

There are 10 companies altogether competing for the award within our category. Check out the details here.

The awards themselves take place in November, offering an ideal opportunity for us to update the dotMailer email marketing Facebook profile with a fresh set of pictures of digital marketers in their dinner suits - hopefully toasting our new award! Watch this space.