From Hitting the Email Inbox, published by DirectMarketingIQ, Chapter 4, “Email Deliverability and the Marketer's ROI”

The Connection Between Deliverability and Marketing Effectiveness

by Dave Lewis, Message Systems CMO

"The Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) "Power of Direct" study has consistently shown that email remains the workhorse of the industry, outperforming other channels by a healthy margin. In 2009, the DMA estimated that commercial email returned $43.62 for every dollar spent. Search advertising, with the second highest ROI, brought in just half that, and other channels performed at even lower levels.

Given its strong usage and continued growth, it's obvious that companies recognize the remarkable revenue potential of commercial email. Equally obvious is that marketers know that achieving good deliverability on their email campaigns is important to realizing that potential. No one contests deliverability's bottom line impact — after all, it's the starting point for any ROI calculation on program effectiveness."

In this chapter, Dave Lewis explains how to calculate the ROI gained by every email delivery rate point you gain. You may be surprised by what you learn!

Hitting the Email Inbox is available from DirectMarketingIQ, the research division of the Target Marketing Group, for $47. It provides tips and methods for improving your deliverability, including:

• Developing a trigger email program
• Segmenting and reviewing your results by service
• Understanding the whitelist/blacklist process
• Using different addresses for different segments of your file
• Not falling into the whole openers/non-openers/clickers trap
• Test mailing at different times of the day
• Being smart about timing
• Use an ECOA service
• Looking into certification