Cookie Legislation

Email marketing software depends to a certain extent on cookies, devices such as clear gifs which are included in marketing emails or dropped on web users' laptops, tablets, mobiles etc to access or store information on those devices. The information returned is a major factor in ensuring that marketing emails are tailored for individual subscribers.

These new rules are amendments of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and bring the UK in line with the rest of the EU. Whilst they have been law for nearly a year, implementation has been put back to an unspecified date post 26 May 2012. Despite suggestions to the contrary, this is not when email marketing software becomes useless.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued guidance. This multi-page document has been eagerly anticipated, but hopes that it would be definitive have been dashed.

It is never satisfactory to have legislation that is vague although in this case there are suggestions as to how companies should go about complying with the regulations.

The ICO gives three general pointers for compliance:

• Follow ICO advice
• Implement ‘quick wins’
• Look for advice from industry
  

However this has some drawbacks:

• The ICO’s advice is far from specific
  
• What constitutes a quick win is left to you to decide
  
• Industry advice, even from established institutions, has been criticised
  

You might be wondering what you should be doing and if so, you are hardly alone. If we look at the general tone of the ICO’s guidelines then there are some pointers.

The first thing to do is not to panic. Despite rumours of the sky falling, the new legislation does not mean that your email marketing software returns will be affected significantly.

Secondly, do not do nothing. In the event of a complaint this will be a point against you.

Compose a plan for compliance.

Implement some part of the plan. Despite the date for enforcement being some unspecified time in the future, you should have made changes already. These do not have to be substantial.

A follow up article will give more specific advice.

Recipient’s responses to an email

Email marketing software will allow you to fashion a marketing email that will stand the best chance of being read. Just trusting to luck is not good enough. The days of finding a few internal memos and a letter or two in your in tray are long gone.

Most people have systems for dealing with bulging inboxes, but their responses can be classified under three main headings.

1. Deleting it immediately

This is the favoured option for most it would appear. Any problem is solved in one click. Not only that, there is a certain satisfaction with the action. It is addictive.

2. Reading it

Whether the email is there to inform, entertain, promote a sale or for some other function, reading it requires a conscious decision. Something about the sender or the Subject line must attract. Research suggests that there is a strict time limit, varying from around two minutes for B2B emails to a little longer for those sent to customers.

3. Passing it to someone else

If you are paying someone to take the drudgery out of your life then there is every possibility that emails will be amongst the first of items passed to them.

4. Deferring it

There are systems included in most email service providers to facilitate filing items to apprise later. The reasons an email is not deleted instantly vary considerably but there remains the possibility that it will be deleted later.

You can, via good quality email marketing software, design the appearance and content of the email to increase the likelihood of preferred option 2/. Once an email is opened the recipient will scan the content to see if, in their opinion, it is worth reading closely. That is when the design of the email becomes critical.

Those new to email marketing, or perhaps taking it seriously for the first time, might well feel the creation of the email is too difficult. Do not be put off. Free email wizards explain the process simply and will show the methods. Your email marketing software will let you improve the quality of your email after each successive campaign.

Creating the email

The big fear of those new to email marketing seems to be the email itself. They feel that the creative process requires skills they do not posses and procedures they do not understand. The reality is somewhat different.

There can be no argument: the design of the email is critical. It will have got past the first stage, that of the spam filters, and the second, of being deleted instantly. The recipients have shown that they are interested so it is all down to the email content. If it is not just right the sale is lost.

There is good news. Whilst the procedures of email marketing might seem bewildering, the fact is that you probably have all the necessary skills. A marketing email is, in essence, sales talk. It is the digital form of what you do daily. The pressures are virtually identical: you have time restraints and those of costs.

Further, the email needs to get an instant reaction, so the opening must excite the recipient, and the offer itself must be good enough to entice the buyer and yet give a good return on investment. In essence all you need to do is get inside the mind of the customer and that is what sales have been about forever.

Whilst the medium is virtual, the process is real.

The design procedure is simplicity itself. You need no special staff, no training and, most importantly, no need to learn from mistakes. You can be up there with the leaders from the start.

Wizemail’s new drag and drop editor couldn’t be easier to follow. You can see the whole procedure demonstrated simply and clearly in this video tutorial.

Using wizards does not preclude instilling a bit of corporate identity into the email. Nor does it restrict individuality. It fulfils the needs of the beginner but can be just as effective when testing minor and major changes, making it easy to respond to email marketing software returns.

The creative procedure for email marketing is not something to fear. Despite it being a critical part of the process it is, as the YouTube video shows, something anyone can do.

Subscriber value

You will probably have seen the suggestion of the $100 billion flotation of Facebook, their major asset being, it is assumed, their 800 million subscribers. Whilst you are looking at the returns from you email marketing software, working out which subjects are most important, spare a thought for those on the massively subscribed social network sites.

How much are your email marketing lists worth? Each individual has probably very little intrinsic value. Whether one person prefers cycling to driving is of little consequence. However, how much better if you know the preferences of all of your subscribers to a greater or lesser extent.

A point to remember is that email marketing software does not require any direct input from the subscriber. If they buy white wine at a ratio of 10:1 with red then there is no argument. They prefer white.

There is the classic case of the newspaper which asked its readers what they preferred and the answer came back that they wanted more sophisticated material. The change to the content to reflect the replies nearly broke the paper. Email marketing software bypasses the individual’s professed likes and instead goes for what they have shown they prefer.

The old saying, it is in the detail, was never more true than when applied to email marketing. The fact that one particular subscriber might have picked a DVD of a television costume drama means little on its own. A thousand such subscribers means that you have the start of a very lucrative email marketing list. If your company also provides themed holidays you are probably already booking the coaches and looking up the filming locations.

The valuation of Facebook, if it is correct of course, gives a value of $125/£80 for each individual subscriber. Email marketing software should ensure that the subscribers to your email list will return a great deal more than that.

There are always tough times ahead. That is the nature of business. However, when considering where to invest your money then think about increasing your email marketing list. Whether the social networking sites are a long lasting phenomenon or not need not worry you.