Mailing Lists (India) Pvt. Ltd.(MLI), India DM Specialist, brings you an insightful article on Electronic Direct Mail (EDM) in India.

For more information on MLI, please visit the MLA-India website at www.mla-india.com. From time to time we will be sending list updates.

EDM is soon becoming a new force in Direct Marketing, in India.

The natural advantage EDM offers is that it eliminates costs associated with traditional direct mail (snail mail). Printing as well as postage costs are eliminated. However, this should not be the reason for companies to abandon traditional direct mail, as the response it pulls is still far higher than an EDM.

Today, EDM is largely being deployed by companies in addition to their regular direct mail activity. This is a sound strategy. It's still 'early days', as the Indian market needs to mature in terms of percentage response of individuals to an EDM. Indians need to get comfortable with responding to an EDM offer that has an 'ask'. However, there are companies that are using it as their only medium of direct communication. One main reason is that it creates tremendous awareness at a low cost. As cost per acquisition (CPA) is low, others are taking the risk and testing various databases.

Today, EDM is largely being deployed by companies in addition to their regular direct mail activity. This is a sound strategy. It's still 'early days', as the Indian market needs to mature in terms of percentage response of individuals to an EDM. Indians need to get comfortable with responding to an EDM offer that has an 'ask'. However, there are companies that are using it as their only medium of direct communication. One main reason is that it creates tremendous awareness at a low cost. As cost per acquisition (CPA) is low, others are taking the risk and testing various databases.

Are good email databases available?

One of the main concerns in EDM is the availability of legitimate email databases. There are numerous offers of CDs which cost Rs. 5000 - 6000 and have over 1 million email ids available. The point is, is it still worth it at that cost? What is the value of the email addresses on that CD? How legitimate are they? How many addresses are still active? What is the profile of the person whose email address is on that list? Or, is it a waste of valuable time and effort?

Legitimate, opt-in proprietary databases are now coming on to the market, which can be rented. Examples are Loyalty Card holders, book buyers, etc. It is these kinds of databases that should be tested by mailers as they are profiled and clean, for they are mailed to regularly by the listowners themselves. There is a vast difference in response if mailing a responder opt-in list where the person has made payment online versus vs. merely an opt-in list. The price per data point would be Rs. 2 - 6 depending on the database and volume taken (this price normally includes the cost of broadcast). There are also good quality compiled databases available in the range of Rs. 0.50 - 1 (cost of broadcast approx. Rs. 0.10 - Rs. 0.50 extra, depending on volume).

What are the points to look for before an EDM broadcast is done?

While it is a known fact that the creative and 'offer' are the most important factors in determining the success of any form of direct mail, with regard to an EDM the HTML itself plays a critical part. It should not be too heavy to download, so design and image size etc. is important. Is the design a combination of text as well as images? If a browser is blocking an image for some reason, at least the text is able to communicate the message. The coding needs to enable the HTML to be accepted by the servers. MLA India has received HTMLs from clients which often do not meet this criteria. Are the fonts in the HTML getting distorted in some browsers? Is the HTML being seen correctly in all browsers? The subject line should not include words like Free! Offer! Hurry! as these kind of words are blocked by the spam filters. Subject line strength, checks on sender name and sender id need to be carried out. As India does not have anti-spam laws in place, it is imperative that the full address and contact details are visible on the HTML. We have found that customers who place the unsubscribe link at the top of the email and make it prominent, often reduce their spam complaints by 75%. This reduction in complaints can easily make the difference between getting blocked and not getting blocked by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). There is consensus among email marketing experts that it is time to move the unsubscribe link from the bottom to the top of all email marketing emails. These are the various issues that need to be thoroughly addressed before undertaking an EDM broadcast.

As far as the broadcast is concerned, the test needs to be done across all kinds of email addresses - corporate, yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc. Does the broadcast service provider have a good relationship with the ISPs and a liaisoning team that takes care of ISP relations? Are their servers white-listed? Do they have multiple servers and a good number of IPs, etc.? Is IP rotation taking place with reference to the broadcast? Is domain shuffling happening? Is the broadcast being received in the inbox or in the junk folder? One main reason for the failure of an EDM campaign could be the fact that the mails did not reach the inbox of the persons concerned. Therefore, you might get a good delivery rate but no response as mails are not viewed by the individuals as it reached their spam folder.

Are companies geared to receive online orders?

The execution of the transaction needs to be a smooth flow from the hyperlinks in the EDM to the mailer's website. Shopping carts/payment gateways need to be easy to navigate. Recently, MLA India ran a campaign for a Fundraiser. While online credit card donations were received, it was noticed that there was a problem if a donor opted for another mode of payment. When he filled in his details and chose 'Cheque' as a mode of payment, after clicking the 'Submit' button, there was no donation form generated on screen or even shot to the email inbox of the donor, which is a standard protocol as it includes all relevant details. As a result of this, after going through all the communication and completing the transaction, the donor had no record of what amount he wished to donate, whom to donate it to (name on cheque) and where to send the payment (address). As the saying goes, "out of sight; out of mind." Potential donors did not send their cheques (not even one cheque payment was received). It was too tedious a process to go through the EDM again, click on the hyperlinks and then migrate to the website to find out all relevant details.

Reports - an important aspect of EDM

One of the advantages of EDM is the detailed reports that can be be viewed immediately after the broadcast is done. You should be able to view the following details in the reports:

• Viewers/Opens and Views - there are two categories: Viewers and Views. Viewers are the actual unique Opens, and Views refer to how many times the mail has been viewed (a person who opens it can view it more than once).
• Clicks - those who have opened the mail and clicked on various links (you can also get details on which links have been clicked on and how many times).
• Bounces - this refers to mails that have bounced back for various reasons. These can be categorised as hard and soft bounces. Soft bounces have valid ids but for some reason they have been rejected, i.e. the recipient's inbox is full/the firewall has blocked the mail, etc. Hard bounces are invalid email ids which are practically 'useless' and need to be removed before the next broadcast. There needs to be a clearly defined and effective bounce-back policy in place.

Day-wise, time-wise, domain wise details etc. can also be viewed from the reports. The recommended days for sending a broadcast are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 12 pm and 6 pm. Mondays are not recommended as people are busy cleaning their mail boxes after the weekend and tend to delete mails on account of having to go through too many in their inbox.

What is considered to be a good response?

• Viewers/Opens - 9% - 25% on proprietary bases, 6% - 15% on compiled bases
• Click rate - 8% - 17% on proprietary bases, 5% - 12% on compiled bases
• Bounce backs - The extent of bounce backs received determines the actual quality of the data. If the bounce back rate is up to 2% - 7% it is considered to be a good list. However, on a compiled base it could go much higher, and it would thus be important to know this, in order to determine the health of the database.

Regarding the actual response rate to offers, there are no benchmarks established as yet for EDM in the Indian market.

In conclusion

To sum up, there is a dearth of good quality opt-in proprietary databases available in the market. However, more and more databases - proprietary and compiled - are being made available for rent. On the other hand, companies need to thoroughly examine the strength of their offer, their creative, their online ordering process, etc., so that the flow is seamless in terms of creative as well as technology, right from the communication in the broadcast to their website, including the shopping cart/ordering functionality. The mailer needs to ensure that there is an efficient reporting system in place to enable a thorough analysis of the offer as well as the database.

MLA India represents a large number of proprietary and compiled email databases in India, and also arranges email broadcasts to go out to client's in-house files on a daily, weekly and monthly basis with tracking reports provided.

Article copyright: Mailing Lists India Pvt. Ltd., September 2010.