As inboxes get more crowded, your jobs, as email marketers, get harder and harder. How can you make sure your email campaign will stand out in your subscribers’ inboxes? Recent studies have found that increasing subscriber engagement is a top priority for the majority of email marketers in 2014. This webinar addresses this important topic and shows you how you can use Return Path’s Inbox Insight to stand out in the inbox. It covered how to use consumer and competitive data to see what drives the best engagement. We also showed you how to apply these tactics to your own program via real life success stories and examples.

1. Using Consumer & Competitive Data
to Create Engaging Emails and an
Unfair Advantage
May 8th, 2014

2. Speakers
Tom Sather
Sr. Director, Research, Return Path
tom.sather@returnpath.com

3. Speakers
Margarita Golod
Director, Product Marketing, Return Path
margarita.golod@returnpath.com

4. Agenda
• Inactives and Win-back Campaigns
• Increasing Your Subscriber Engagement
• Client Uses and Successes

5. Inactives and Win-back
Campaigns
Tom Sather
Sr. Director, Research, Return Path

6. 65% of marketers said
driving subscriber
engagement is their primary
lifecycle challenge.

14. Increasing Subscriber
Engagement
Margarita Golod
Director, Product Marketing, Return Path

15. Return Path, August 2013
The Inbox Is A Battlefield

16. Receives between
400 and 500
commercial
messages per month
From over 150
different
senders
<30% of that
mail gets read
What are Your Subscribers Reading?

17. Retailer A’s Audience is
2.4x higher than
Retailer B
Retailer B shares 59%
of their Audience with
Retailer A
Retailer A’s campaigns
are read 21% more
than Retailer B
Retailer A Retailer B
Your Data Alone Can’t Maximize Engagement

18. How Do You Stand Out?

19. To Increase Subscriber Engagement You Need
Understand if these email campaigns are
read, deleted unread, forwarded, etc.
Real
Performance
Data
Know where to focus (volume, cadence,
creative, list size, or subject line)
Actionable
Insights
See all email campaigns competing for your
subscribers attention
Complete
Visibility

20. • See all email campaigns competing
for your subscribers attention
• Get real performance data
on these campaigns
• Optimize your own email program
based on what is resonating with
your subscribers
Inbox Insight
Full Visibility
Real Performance Metrics
Actionable Insights

21. Get Data and Insights on What Drives
Engagement
• Subject Line Performance
• Results of A/B Testing
• Day of Week Analysis
• Frequency, Volume, Segmentation
• Creative Repository
• List Size and Subscriber Overlap
Macys.com Amazon.com

22. Tax Software for Consumers
“Inbox Insight provides us with email performance data that we cannot get
anywhere else. This product fills a big gap we had in gathering competitive
intelligence and allows us to see where we could be doing better in driving
the engagement we need to win.”
—Timothy O’Brien
Group Manager
Digital Communications, Intuit
“Cannot Get This Data Anywhere Else”
• Stiff competition for subscriber
attention against H&R Block
• Incomplete visibility despite
expensive competitive
intelligence strategy
Challenge
• Used INBOX INSIGHT to
benchmark their performance
versus H&R Block
Solution
• Full visibility into H&R Block
Email Programs
• Campaigns
• Performance
• Increased speed of competitive
findings and reduced expense
required to capture
• Drove optimization strategy
Result

23. Large National Department Store
“The competitive intelligence in Inbox Insight allows me to see what my real
subscribers will do if I change frequency, cadence, subject line, targeting,
etc., and this lets me make a more informed business decision.”
—Mike Hodapp
Director, Digital Marketing
Dillard’s Inc.
“Predict How Email Campaigns Will Perform”
• Internal pressure to expand
email programs without data
• Unknown impact of proposed
actions on current subscribers
Challenge
• Used INBOX INSIGHT to
understand engagement of
similar email campaigns sent
by competitors
Solution
• Use competitive insight to inform
business strategy
• Created optimized email
program strategy
• Able to answer department
requests with data
Result

24. Online Website and Publisher
“Inbox Insight should have a direct impact on our revenue because the data
from the tool will increase our advertising sales. As a publishing business,
we can now use our email performance data and that of our competitors to
show our advertisers exactly why they should advertise with us versus
competition.” —Jack Hogan
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Lifescript
“Direct Impact On Revenue”
• Advertising model
demanded measurability
and performance of email
• Insufficient data
to address this
Challenge
• Used INBOX INSIGHT
benchmark their email
engagement against others
in the industry
Solution
• Grew advertising sales based
on data driven analysis of
performance
• Achieved competitive advantage
in use of email channel
Result

25. Inbox Insight: Client Examples
Large Entertainment Resort
• Promotional Planning and Testing
• Subject Line Planning and Testing
Retail Clothing Chain
• Weekly Competitive Snapshot
• Flash Sale Strategy Implementation
Home Furnishings and Décor Chain
• Seasonal Offer Planning
• Reporting for Senior Management
Global Online Travel Brand
• Subject Line Testing
• Competitive Analysis

26. Client Details − Large Entertainment Resort
• Use Inbox Insight to identify where to put offers/discounts in subject lines
for highest performance
• Use competitive performance data for monthly planning

27. Client Details − Retail Clothing Chain
• Use Inbox Insight to create executive report on their performance
vs. competitors
• Look at Flash Sales campaigns from other brands to determine their own Flash
Sales strategy: length of flash sales, timing, day of week, etc.

28. Inbox Insight Highlights − Retail Clothing Chain

29. Client Details − Home Furnishings and Décor
Chain
• Use Inbox Insight data to validate email marketing strategy to upper management
• Develop seasonal offers based on what is working and not working for others

30. Inbox Insight Highlights − Home Furnishings
and Décor chain

31. Client Details – Global Online Travel Brand
• Use Inbox Insight to understand subject line fatigue, effectiveness of symbols, and
promotional calendars
• Gather insight and data on their sister brand

32. Inbox Insight Highlights− Global Online
Travel Brand

33. • Inbox Insight product information:
returnpath.com/solution-content/inbox-insight
• Benchmark your email program:
benchmark.returnpath.com/etpromotion
• Email us questions:
ExactTarget@returnpath.com
Resources

34. Empower Your
Email Marketing
Text “EMAIL” to 38767
Tips | Strategies | Trends
*Msg&Data Rates Apply. Get 1msg/week. HELP for help. STOP
to Stop. T&Cs avail at http://pages.exacttarget.com/etsmshelp/

35. Upcoming Webinars:
http://www.exacttarget.com/resource-center/webinarsRegister:
May 22nd
Best Practices of Guided Selling
May 14th
Introducing the Next Version of ExactTarget Salesforce
Integration
June 12th
Bringing You Close to Your Social Customers

36. Ignite your
Digital Marketing
Text “SPARK” to 38767
*Msg&Data Rates Apply. Get 1msg/week. HELP for help. STOP
to Stop. T&Cs avail at http://pages.exacttarget.com/etsmshelp/

37. exacttarget.com