eROI Days Email Agency

The below study highlights a powerful trend of more interactivity on websites and the expectation of compelling flash embedded into websites. It got me thinking about the opposite trend in email where flash is seldom used in email as it is blocked from many ISPs and corporate email environments. Will it ever catch up to the web or is email a medium that will solely be used for HTML and text? Please comment below.

Macromedia Flash reaches 97.7% of Internet-connected PCs
In April 2006, NPD Research conducted a study to determine what percentage of Web browsers have Macromedia Flash Player pre-installed. The results show that 97.7% of Web users can experience Macromedia Flash content without having to download and install a player.

We (eROI) just released our Q1′06 Email Statistics & Survey Study. During Q1′06, we saw dramatically different statistics when compared to Q4’05. For example, Q1 2006 gave us a huge uptake in weekend activity as well a massive upswing in open and click rates with increases of 40% and 60%, respectively.

It is especially interesting to see a large increase in opens and clicks during the weekend. Much of this activity can be attributed to the massive drop off in activities after the holidays, giving people more time to browse online and open and follow up on email. However, this quarter has presented us with some unexplained reactions. Normally, we see higher open and click rates on days with lower volume, such as on Sunday in the chart below, but at the same time we see the highest percentage of open rates take place on the day with the most email sent. What does this mean? Good subject lines and good creative get good results, bad creative and bad subject lines perform poorly. Don’t forget to download our detailed eROI Q1′06 Email Report.

If you’d like to get some different perspectives on this study, go to articles on:
MarketingVox
MediaBuyerPlanner

Subject Line Research: Response Goes Down As the Characters Go Up

The issue of subject line length is something that gets debated endlessly around the marketing water cooler. Most people know that anything longer than 55 characters (and, just a reminder, the spaces do count!) will get cut off. And many have heard the maxim that 35 is really a better number to aim for. But, does anyone know how the length of the subject line actually affects response?

Response rate (as measured by clicks) goes down dramatically when the subject line is longer than 50 characters.

Click-through rates for subject lines with 49 or fewer characters were 75 percent higher than for those with 50 or more.

What about open rates? While the difference wasn’t as dramatic, we found that subject lines with 49 or fewer characters had open rates 12.5 percent higher than for those with 50 or more.

Testing your subject lines on your list is the only way to know what will work and what won’t. But, this research clearly shows that, in fact, brevity is the better part of valor.

I promise to add to this blog entry with the source of this study.

Alex Williams in my office sent me this email. Not sure of the source, but it hits the mark

WIKIPEDIA

Benchmark: You didn’t create your own entry.

Perfect for: Filmmakers, playwrights, Ashlee Simpson.

When you’ve made it: No one has any idea that your best friend wrote about your “vast, impressive contributions to the modern cultural landscape.”

When you’ve really, really made it: You are no longer disputed for neutrality.

MySPACE

Benchmark: More than 10,000 friends. 50 comments. You are online now.

Perfect for: 12-year-olds, musicians, Dane Cook.

When you’ve made it: Your Top 8 is la creme de la creme of Bratz fans with saucy, up-to-no-good stares. Your comments cup overfloweth.

When you’ve really, really made it: You and Tom talk, like, all the time.

YOUTUBE

Benchmark: You’ve been downloaded 50,000 times and passed around more than a New York socialite in the Hamptons on a long holiday weekend.

Perfect for: That dude in Romania with the Web cam, comedians.

When you’ve made it: You are linked to on more than 100 different Web sites. The words “blog” and “spot” have never sounded quite so sweet.

When you’ve really, really made it: When your video crashes the site. You’re called to direct a music video.

TECHNORATI

Benchmark: You have more than 50 inbound links.

Perfect for: College students, Vanity Fair writers.

When you’ve made it: There is serious blogometric pressure. Serious.

When you’ve really, really made it: You made Cory Doctorow giggle.

FLICKR

Benchmark: You have been “favorited” more than 300 times.

Perfect for: People with hands.

When you’ve made it: You get tagged more than an NYU freshman on a highway overpass.

When you’ve really, really made it: You have just blogged your pants. You are not sorry.

Sam is a designer at eROI. He really likes ponies. Since he was a boy, he always dreamed of riding a tiny, shaggy pony. On a client trip to the Oregon Coast, he got his chance. He sent this photo to me in an email today. We are so proud of you Sam.

A buddy of mine sent this to me last week some three syllable Japanese word in the subject line.

I don’t know how in the world this product got past the brainstorming session and into development. Perhaps it seemed innocent enough in theory but even so, the ads have done away with any and all innocence. Everytime I see this spot, I am whisked back in time to the fourth grade, when I worked at Club Bath as a towel boy. The pay was decent but I quit after a particularly sticky situation.

Seriously though, will somebody please smack the folks at Hasbro in the head for allowing this ad to air, or even exist on film? Also, send over a Japanese translator so I can figure out this word: ‘bu…bu…ah, it’s all Greek to me.

P.S. – You think it’s fake? Go here:http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=browse&product_id=17359#

P.P.S. – Frequent pumping reguired.

Instead of stumbling upon this site from a link within a proud friend’s email, I actually found this hilarious site as a link from one of my favorite viral marketing blogs, Adverblog. The “Shave Everywhere” Philips micro-site promotes male grooming. My personal favorites on this site include the cheesy male voiceover and the featured extra optical inch you apparently get if you are an agressive trimmer. Guys – please comment. A buddy of mine did a recent poll at a party, and said that 14 out of 20 men trim. I didn’t believe him, but it seems that there is now some conclusive evidence.

Our wacky e-marketing agency, eROI, created an off-the-wall site called “Send a High Five” to spread the virtual love and sincerity of a good high five. The site www.SendaHighFive.com was a labor of love for us. We wanted dip our toes into the ocean that is social networking and flex our creative muscles at the same time. We have certainly had some interesting initial results. On 4/20/06, we seeded the site on Wikipedia.

The stoners came out in droves. 4/20, which also happened to be National High Five Day this year, was our single best day for unique visits to the High Five site. Who says smoking reefer makes you unproductive? Our toking test audience gave us two bongs up but now we ask ourselves, “Do you have to be high to five?” We think not and we are ready to get the rest of the world on the High Five love-train. Check out the site, create a High Five and send it to me. We’ll keep you updated with the results of our Social Media / viral marketing experiment.