*You've Got (Unread) Mail: E-mail overload is nothing new, leaving communications professionals struggling to find new methods to increase deliverability, opens, clicks and
conversions in e-mail marketing efforts. According to the "Elements of E-mail" survey conducted by eROI, these execs are missing out on opportunities to boost these stats.
The following approaches were among those recommended to increase the overall success of e-mail marketing initiatives:
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Use the company's name in the "from" line: 51% of respondents say they identify their company in the "from" line, while 32% say it depends on the campaign and 17%
prefer to use their individual name.
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Authenticate e-mails. E-mail authentication verifies messages, allowing recipients to automatically recognize the nature of each incoming communication. But, approximately
60% of responding marketers don't know how to authenticate e-mail; even though these verifications can help companies avoid blacklists, only about 25% of marketers use them.
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Keep it short and sweet: 75% of respondents try to ensure that the subject line accurately describes the of the e-mail, and 50% focus on keeping it the subject line
concise. What's more, studies have shown that using a subject line with 72 or more characters gives added relevance, causing click-throughs and conversion rates to increase.
Subject lines with 60 characters or fewer, on the other hand, prompt open rates to increase. According to the report, the span between 60 and 72 characters has been shown to be a
"dead zone."
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Duplicate site navigation: Nearly 30% of responding marketers duplicate their site navigation in e-mails. Of those who do so, 15% find it more effective in driving clicks
than the e-mail's main content.
Source: eROI
*CEOs Bounce Back: After a historic fall, Chief Executive magazine's CEO Confidence Index rebounded in August, increasing by more than 10% according to the 292 senior
executives surveyed. The Index measures CEOs' confidence in the economy, as well as in their future business plans.
Among the findings:
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The current CEO Confidence Index stands at 92.6, the highest it's been since May, when it was at 95.8;
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In terms of specific components within the overall index, the Investment and Future Confidence Indices rose by 12 and 11.9 points, respectively;
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On the investment front, 52% of respondents said they expect capital spending at their company to stay the same--the highest percentage recording since April 2007--which
indicates that CEO confidence is slowly improving;
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The Employment Confidence Index rose by 8.2 points in August, the least improved of all components;
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Less than 7% of respondents said they would characterize current employment conditions as "good," while more than 42% said they would consider them to be "bad;" and,
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While just 11% of CEOs said they expect employment to rise over the next quarter, 46% think it will fall.
Source: Chief Executive magazine
*The Time to Buy Is Now: The economy may be struggling to regain its balance, but entrepreneurs are using the downturn as an opportunity to get ahead of the game--a signal that
the merger and acquisition climate is as active as ever.
According to a survey of more than 1,000 active business buyers conducted by BusinessesForSale.com:
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48% of survey respondents see the current economic conditions as an advantage when buying a business;
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66% found banks to be accommodating to their needs, although 33% found their search for funding to be more difficult than expected;
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28% view buying a business as a safer investment than equities or residential property;
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36% believe that businesses for sale are more competitively priced as a result of the downturn; and,
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60% of business buyers say business ownership is a way of taking control of their life in difficult times.
Source: BusinessForSale.com PRN