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Email Driving Flash-Sale Sites

Written by Jim Ducharme on September 23, 2011 — Leave a Comment

eMarketer has an interesting post up about flash-sales sites and the key role email plays in driving their success. According to this, email marketing takes the gold, driving 18% of traffic to these sites. Social media takes silver with 13% and search takes bronze with 11%.

“Overall, 56% of businesses had higher click-to-open rates for flash-sales emails compared to regular campaigns.”

Not surprisingly, time of send and the duration of sales are big factors in the success equation. Evening sends outperformed lunchtime sends in terms of:

  • Open rates
  • Total click rates
  • Transaction rates
  • Revenue rates

Shorter sale durations also seemed to work best for flash-sales.

Read the full eMarketer post.

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New my.sailthru Interface

Written by Vanessa Sorenson on September 22, 2011 — 1 Comment

In two weeks on October 3, 2011, Sailthru will be switching to the new my.sailthru.com interface for your account. We hope you’ve enjoyed the open preview for the last few weeks, via the link in your current sailthru.com administration area. Our sincerest thanks and deep appreciation go out to all the clients who sent us their feedback. Using your input, we’ve taken the system to an even higher level!

While the functionality remains similar to the old interface, we have enhanced and revised the design and added new features for your convenience. You’ll also notice a few tools have found new homes in navigation menus grouped by functionality. We encourage you to take a few seconds below to familiarize yourself with the new layout and where some of those familiar functions have moved.

Navigation:

You can still select the appropriate tab along the top of the page. However you will notice that these tabs will turn into dropdown menus. The dropdown menu will reflect your most recently used category to allow you to easily navigate to the pages you use the most.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE VIEW

Tabs:

In addition to the drop down menu you will notice that the Query Builder now has it’s own tab. New additions to the main navigation include an API test page where you can test any existing or new API calls and the Content Tab. The Content tab contains any includes you may have, your data feeds and your spidered content if you are using Horizon or Concierge. You’ll also notice a new kid on the block: hosted pages. Sailthru can now host  your opt-in and subscription management pages; instructions on how to build those pages can be found in our docs: http://docs.sailthru.com/editors/pages

Visual Editor:

We realize our clients have users of various technical backgrounds, so we’ve upgraded our Visual Editor from the previous interface to give you a more robust and user-friendly way to create or edit a template or campaign:

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE VIEW

Using the visual editor is a great way to edit your templates and campaigns because it allows you to easily import, edit, add, and remove elements in your HTML. Keep in mind that if you are editing an existing template that has custom formatting, this editor could change or alter your HTML code.

Help Center:

Our “Docs” navigation button has moved to the top right of the window, marked now as “Help Center.” In an effort to give you more in-line help, we have added tool tips throughout the entire system (see below for an example.) Hovering over the icon will give you more information about a given term or function.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR FULL SIZE VIEW

We think you’ll like the drag and drop widget dashboard too. It allows you to select the reporting that is most useful to your needs to appear on your homepage. You can try out the new interface right now by clicking the link at the top of your dashboard.

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Sailthru Announces $8 Million in Venture Funding

Written by Neil Capel on September 20, 2011 — 5 Comments

The entire crew here @ Sailthru is thrilled to announce some big news!

We’ve officially closed our Series A funding. We’ve all been working extremely hard to provide our clients with the most powerful and advanced communication platform and we really appreciate so many innovative and successful companies partnering with us.

Sailthru is revolutionizing the way our clients communicate and engage with their customers. We are very excited about this new chapter in our growth!

Our Series A round of financing was led by RRE Ventures. Participants in the round included AOL Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, Hatteras Funds, Lerer Ventures, Pilot Group, and Thrive Capital. All except Hatteras Funds, participated in the seed round.

Sailthru will use the funds to scale, hire (We’re hiring!), and expand sales categories.

All of us would like to thank you for your support and patronage as we continue to innovate and build the next generation of communication platforms!

Get more details from our friends at Business Insider

Here is the official press release:

SAILTHRU ANNOUNCES $8 MILLION IN VENTURE FUNDING

TO FUEL EXPANSION IN E-COMMERCE, FLASH SALE & PUBLISHER MARKETS

RRE Venture Leads Series A Funding Round to Expand Business, Continue Service Development and Drive Innovation

New York, NEW YORK – September 20, 2011 – Sailthru, the only company that automatically tailors email, web and advertising content to every unique user, today announced that it received $8 million in Series A financing led by RRE Ventures; the firm also contributed to Sailthru’s seed investment. Other participants in the round included AOL Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, Hatteras Funds, Lerer Ventures, Pilot Group, and Thrive Capital. All except Hatteras Funds participated in the seed round. This investment brings the company’s cumulative financing to $9 million.

The company plans to use this latest round of funding to fuel the growth in the e-commerce, flash sales and publisher markets, as well as add staff and invest in continued innovation. Since Sailthru’s launch in 2009, the company has helped major brands such as AOL/Huffington Post, Betaworks, Business Insider, The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, Fab.com, FlavorPill, the New York Observer, Oscar de la Renta, Oyster.com, Thrillist, and Turntable.fm increase revenue by delivering users highly relevant, personalized content via email, the web or advertising channels.

“Merchants and online publishers have long struggled with issues of engagement, retention and maximizing the revenue generated by each visit to their properties. Sailthru’s technology enables its customers to create individual offerings, both online and via email, using data science and analysis to consider the preferences and circumstances of each individual visitor to a site,” said Eric Wiesen, General Partner at RRE Ventures. “The platform helps customers maximize engagement and deliver messages at key times based on a user’s individual stream of activity. It is of huge incremental value to both publishers and ecommerce merchants.”

Sailthru focuses on perfecting the user experience. Content is automatically and continually tailored to the user based on their every interaction with the publisher or ecommerce company whether via email, mobile, website or advertising. When companies understand the interests and behaviors of their customers down to the individual level, they can present content users want to receive, and that will deliver higher, prolonged and more frequent engagement.

“Our goal from day one has been to help companies create a unique experience for each and every user that encourages continued engagement,” said Neil Capel, CEO of Sailthru. “As such, Sailthru’s technology helps brands build better, longer lasting relationships with users, and cultivate infinite customer lifetime value.”

ABOUT SAILTHRU

Launched in 2009, Sailthru is the only company that automatically tailors email, web and advertising content to every unique user. Sailthru’s technology lets publishers and e-commerce companies communicate directly to the individual user and deliver highly-relevant, personalized content through a number of channels.  As users actively participate in the process their behavior provides insight to create an experience that is even more personal and engaging. Additionally, companies are able to tailor new content (articles, offers, etc.) to the specific user which encourages an ongoing, profitable relationship between brand and customer. Well-known companies like AOL/Huffington Post, Betaworks, Business Insider, Daily Beast/Newsweek, Fab.com, FlavorPill, the New York Observer, Oscar de la Renta, Oyster.com, Thrillist, and Turntable.fm currently use Sailthru to increase revenue generated by their subscriber lists and site visitors. New York-based Sailthru is backed by AOL Ventures, DFJ Gotham Ventures, Hatteras Funds, Lerer Ventures, RRE Ventures, Pilot Group, and Thrive Capital.

MEDIA CONTACT

Haley Cook

Horn Group for Sailthru

hcook@horngroup.com

646.202.9756

# # #

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3 Mad Smart Marketing Quotes from Don Draper

Written by Jim Ducharme on September 20, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Madmen walked away with more hardware at the Primetime Emmy’s the other night for “Outstanding Drama Series.” That reminded us that Don Draper has some great quotes which can easily be applied to email marketing and social media marketing. So, with no embellishment on our part, here are three great lines from Mr. Draper which should make you think:

Don Draper Marketing Quotes“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”

“You want some respect? Go out there and get it for yourself.”

“Change isn’t good or bad. It just is.”

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According to Oyster.com, Sailthru is a Pearl

Written by Kate O'Keefe on September 16, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Mike Cirello of Oyster.com set out on a quest a while back to find an email service provider with the following criteria:

  • Cost.  Oyster is a startup and doesn’t like to pay Big Company prices.
  • Deliverability.  Spammers have made email deliverability a huge pain in the rear.  Getting your message into your customer’s inbox is not trivial.
  • API.  Mike wanted a solution he could extend.
  • Features.  The fewer things Mike had to write, the more time he could spend on his site.

 

He tested about a dozen ESPs before deciding Sailthru best met the needs of Oyster.com. We’re glad Oyster thinks we’re a pearl when it comes to email marketing, and we appreciate Mike’s honest feedback. “[Sailthru] probably [has] the worst designed website in the industry, but I heard good things about them so I got a demo account and took it for a spin… At the end of the day we chose Sailthru.”

Re: the website: we know, Mike! And we’re working on it. All things in due course.

Read the details on why Mike and Oyster.com decided on Sailthru, and how we’ve helped them deliver.

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TechCrunch Interviews Fab.com CEO, Jason Goldberg

Written by Kate O'Keefe on September 15, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Fab.com is beyond fabulous. The growth of this daily design flash deals site has been incredible. At only eleven weeks in, Fab can boast a substantial list and fan club with a growth rate of about 5k users per day.

Fab’s success is no shock to us. Here at the Sailthru office, Fab emails are always a hot topic – we even ordered some seriously cool grenade-shaped soap from Fab a couple weeks back!

Alexia Tsotsis of TechCrunch interviewed Fab.com CEO/Founder, Jason Goldberg last week. In the interview, Alexia speaks with Jason about the origin of Fab, their model of success and the tough decisions Jason had to make in order to bring his vision to life.

Watch the video here.

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Five Fantastic Email Marketing Resources

Written by Jim Ducharme on September 14, 2011 — 4 Comments

Email marketers are always on the hunt for the newest trends and insightful analysis on current ones. Today, I thought I’d share with you five of my favorite online resources for email marketing information and commentary.

Email Marketing Reports
Mark Brownlow is considered to be the grand daddy of email marketing bloggers. If it has anything to do with email marketing, you’ll find information about it here.

Email Stats Center
Perhaps the Power Point presenter’s best friend! If you’re looking for stats on a variety of email marketing related subjects, this is the place.

The Magill Report
Every industry needs an investigative reporter and that’s the role Ken plays in the email marketing biz. I don’t always agree with Ken and frankly, sometimes I don’t even like what he says, but he’s a brilliant writer and uncompromising in his opinions. In fact, Ken couldn’t pull his punches even if he was hitting himself in the head.

CIO WhitePapers
This site aggregates whitepapers from various sources on everything from email marketing to cloud computing.

MarketingSherpa
MarketingSherpa is probably best known for their excellent email marketing benchmark reports – worth the visit just for these.

Feel free to add your favorite online email marketing resources in the comments!

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Best Email Marketing Send Times: Horizon Send Time

Written by Vanessa Sorenson on September 13, 2011 — Leave a Comment

As email marketers we try to optimize our campaigns to send at the time when people are most likely to open. But how can you target thousands of people at one send time? You can overcome this hurdle with Sailthru’s Horizon Send Time. With Horizon Send Time you are able to look at your subscriber’s previous open history and send to these subscribers over a designated amount of time. So for instance, you have subscribers that open at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm, if you select a Horizon send time of 6 hours, it will send your email to these subscribers at the time they are most likely to open; 9am,12pm, and 3pm. It does so by sending the email in buckets according to the time the subscribers are most likely to open and a horizon send time period of 6 hours.

To use Horizon Send Time, in our interface click the “Scheduled Send” tab in the campaign editor. Then simply select the amount of time, up to 24 hours, you want your emails to be sent in those buckets, (so in this instance 6 hours) and schedule your send. This will send to the users at the time they are most likely to read the email.

When to send is a question which constantly comes up from email marketers. Most ESPs will simply say, “it depends.” But on what? With Sailthru you know exactly when the best times are to send to your subscribers, based on when they actually open your email marketing newsletters!

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Connecting with QR Codes

Written by Jim Ducharme on September 12, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Connecting with QR CodesThe QR (Quick Response) code was initially developed for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing. QR codes can accommodate a much higher density of data than the standard UPC bar codes and thus, more potential functionality and flexibility.  With the right software, a smartphone can use it’s camera to read these codes and initiate an action.

It’s not hard to get carried away and overuse or even abuse QR codes — don’t just use them to be hip. Use QR codes to provide your customers with more value. That value can range from discounts to relevant information about your company or a link to a special promotional landing page.

Use QR codes:

  • On your business cards to store contact information directly to a customers smartphone
  • On any promotional material and even staff shirts for events or conferences (store business card info or send someone to your website)
  • In print to integrate your online and offline marketing

 

Basic rules to remember:

  • Have a clear goal/destination to send the user to
  • Give people something they can use now
  • Make sure any pages you send people to are optimized for mobile
  • Clear instructions in your newsletter and blog on QR codes and include links to QR reader software
  • Never waste a customers time with QR fluff

 

QR code generators:

KAYWA
Basic and easy to use.

Zxing
Easy to use with more abilities such as Geo location and WiFi

Beqrious
Allows you to easily create QR codes linking to some social media profiles and include graphics with the code.

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Five Simple Things You Can Do to Help Email Deliverability

Written by Vanessa Sorenson on September 9, 2011 — Leave a Comment

Deliverability is the holy grail of email marketing. You can have the best newsletter on the planet, but if you don’t get to the inbox, your content is completely wasted. Most ESPs have people dedicated to helping their clients get their email marketing messages delivered while Sailthru also employs technology which sends your email marketing messages to the most engaged users first, thus helping your sender score, but it’s not all super technical.

Here are five simple things you can do to help improve your email marketing deliverability:

1 – Update your DNS records with your Cname, SPF, Sender ID and DKIM – click here for more info

2 – Ask people to add you to their safe sender list – post about how to do this on your blog and link to it in your newsletter

3 – Use a consistent from address and monitor it for replies or unsubscribe requests (some people will email you rather than click an unsub link)

4 – Keep your list clean

5 – Have your unsubscribe link at the top of your emails where it’s easy to find

 

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