Please find a list of questions posed during the session below:
When you refer to "list" do you mean the entire list that I have in my CRM, or the actual set of emails being sent to AFTER suppression folders have been applied?
When we are referring to list cleansing, we are generally talking about your 'mailable' contacts, so after suppressions have been applied. By cleaning your lists, you'll likely add some contacts to suppression folders, so in actual fact you may be adding to them instead of clearing them down.
Where can I find the least engaged?
There are three reports mentioned on the webinar which could be useful here:
1. Campaigns with least engagement
Go to Reports > Email > Email Global Statistics to access a table which lists your sends, and overall engagement stats for each one.
2. Individuals displaying lowest engagement rates
Go to Dashboards > Business Development Dashboard – Individual. One of the tables in this report provides you with a list of the least engaged contacts who you've sent a mailing to, and the number of mailings they've received in that period. A very useful report to pull lists of unengaged individuals.
3. List engagement levels
On the send screen, select a list and click on the 'check list' link which appears below you’re the list of contacts. This will download an excel file which shows you whether a contact or a domain (any contact you have sent to with the same domain) has engaged in the last 12 months.
Using the list check tool we are seeing new contacts being flagged. What should we do with these?
New contacts will be flagged by the list check tool, but you can disregard those. The tool provides an overall risk indication, and it's not always necessary to suppress ALL contacts marked as unengaged. However, if 30 per cent or more of your list is either unengaged or new to your email programme, you might want to consider splitting into separate sends to spread out the risk.
To automatically suppress contacts who have not engaged in the last 12 months, check out the Vuture automated whitelist engagement tool here. This excludes any new contacts, giving them 12 months from the point of first send to engage in a mailing.
Should we archive vs delete un-engaged?
There are a few options for dealing with unengaged contacts, and this could depend on your internal processes. The most important thing is to stop mailing them so that there is no risk of hitting a spam trap.
You could then choose to archive them while you investigate bit more closely. Are there deliverability problems with the domains (i.e. are your mailings being blocked, or directed to spam) which has led to the lack of engagement, or are any of the domains incorrect or out of date for example? Where the answer is yes to these questions, you could clean up the data. Where the answer is no, it's best to delete or suppress the contacts.
Do you have suggestions for creating template best practices?
Yes, the Vuture creative best practice guide can be found here. It's important to engage contacts as much as possible as it's the only way we can tell if an email address is active.
How would you suggest personalizing content?
The most basic way to personalise an email is to add placeholders, like {first name} and {company}, to grab the attention of your audience. For more advanced personalisation, you can use nested variables, or dynamic content if you're an InterAction user.
It's important to think about different segments you have in your database, and whether your messaging could be better tailored to them. For example, would you speak to clients in a different way to prospects/leads? If so, think about how to use variables to communicate more effectively to each group.
For help with your engagement/personalisation strategy, please contact Client.Success@Vutu.re
