Dive deep into the strategies and tactics that leading organizations are employing to turn data from the email ecosystem into a strategic advantage.

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Using Return Path Data to Promote Your Brand
Marketing/Research Breakout Session
Tom Sather
Senior Director of Email Research, Return Path

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Email addresses in
the world.
Facebook users in
the world.
Twitter users in the
world.

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Email
53% of marketers state
email produces significant
or some ROI.
Only 29% of marketers say
the same for social.
Social

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How Effective is Email Marketing?
Source: Sikich, 2013
Consumers who receive
marketing emails
spend
83% more when shopping
ROI = $44.25
for every dollar spent
They order
28% more often
Their orders are
44% larger
70% of digital marketers
see email as the top
medium for ROI
And here’s why…

5. #RPWT
Email Optimization
Drive more ROI from
the #1 digital channel
Increase email
spend by 15-20%
by reallocating
budget from lower
performing
channels
Delivered
60 million
more monthly
responses
Got nearly
25 billion
messages to
the inbox

6. #RPWT
2.5 billion+
Mailboxes in the
provider cooperative
4 million+
Consumers
in the end-user panel
50 billion+
Messages
scanned and parsed
The Return Path
Data Cloud
We curate exclusive
information and
translate it into
unexpected insights,
empowering clients
and partners to make
great decisions.

7. #RPWT#RPWT
What a Marketer Worries About Before Hitting Send

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Opportunities for Email Marketing
• Reach the Inbox
• Grab Their Attention
• Be Relevant
• Gain a Competitive
Advantage
• Earn and Maintain Trust

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Opportunity:
Reach the Inbox

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On average 21% of
commercial emails land in
spam or get blocked.

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Reach The Right Inbox
Optimize email visibility by getting more email delivered.
Get on the Best
Certified Whitelist
Assess Your Inbox
Placement
Know Your Sender
Reputation

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Solution: Data
• Using data, we can analyze many aspects preventing organizations
from reaching their customers, grabbing their attention, and being
relevant.
Open rates
Complaint rates
Inbox placement rate
Personalized delivery

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Deliverability is Like a Roller Coaster
• Low Inbox Placement Rates
• Comcast delivery issues
• Sending behaviors resemble spam
signals

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“Certification was huge for us. Yahoo and
Comcast account for a big part of our file, and
our email campaigns reached more people this
year because our messages are getting through
almost all of the time.”
Daryle Powers
VP of CRM
Cedar Fair

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Opportunity:
Grab Their Attention

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The average consumer receives
more than 500 marketing
messages in a given month and
opens fewer than 1 in 15.

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Capture Attention
With the Right
Subject Line
Know How You’re
Being Viewed
See What Your
Competitors are
Doing
The Right Message

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Optimizing Subject Lines
Subject Line and
Body Copy are
Important
Optimize for the
Action, Not Just
the Open
Test Everything

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What
Are
Words
Worth?
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Actual If Sending Average If Sending Worst
Full Send in Millions
Obama: Best vs. Worst

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• Thanks for getting one of these, Tom
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• Don't miss your (free) limited edition
sticker
• You'll think these are pretty cool:
Emails from Hillary

21. #RPWT
46%
23%
27%
24%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Thanks for Getting One of These,
Tom
Did you get one of these yet? Don't miss your (free) limited
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You'll think these are pretty cool:
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22. #RPWT#RPWT
“Return Path is definitely challenging us to get
better every day and the new Subject Line
Optimizer is a new innovation which we use
regularly.”
Jodie Dunkley
eCommerce Director
Identity Direct

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Opportunity:
Be More Relevant

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Relevancy and Personalization are Key
Have a secondary
email address to
get away from
spam and
marketing emails.
Said email was
their preferred
channel to receive
marketing offers
from brands.
39% said they
wanted to receive
fewer emails.
32% said they
wanted fewer
repetitive emails.

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Solution: Data
• Personalize email frequency
and send time of day
messages based on
customer behavioral data.

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An individual is 25% more likely
to open an email within the first
hour that it lands in their inbox.

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The Right Time
Earn more response and revenue by having your email
arrive when customers are in their inbox.
Optimize the
Send Time
by Subscriber
Pinpoint the Best
Day and Time
to Connect
See Higher Opens,
Clicks, and
Conversions

28. #RPWT
Initiate
Send
Send Time
Optimization
Shelly
Tanya
Ramón
…the rest of your list
Receives email
At 9:00 am
Receives email
At 3:00 pm
Receives email
At 12:00 am
Subscribers receive
email when they are
typically online

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Case Study | Major Resort
“Send time optimized campaigns perform much better than our control
group as well as the default hour.”
Open rates were Click-thru rates were
higher higher

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Opportunity:
Gain a Competitive
Advantage

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Solution: Data
• Know your competitors and how your brand performs against theirs
• Use engagement data from your campaigns to know where to focus and
what to prioritize
• Know how subscribers read your email (clients, devices, and inboxes)
• Use performance data to create more effective subject lines and content

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READ RATE FOR
WINNER’S CAMPAIGNS
IS HIGHER BY
19%*
VS
29%
WINNER: STARBUCKS
* Shared subscribers are 6% of Starbucks’ total list size.

33. #RPWT#RPWT
Daryle Powers
Vice President CRM
Cedar Fair
“Using Inbox Insight we found some great ideas
that were working for other companies in our
space. Our messages started looking more like
theirs. Now when we look at the top campaigns,
more and more we see other companies’
messages look like ours. It’s the sincerest form
of flattery.”

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Opportunity:
Earning and
Maintaining Trust

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Source: RSA Fraud Report (October 2014), EMC
The Average Uptime
For Phishing Attacks
Source: APWG Global Phishing Report 2H2014
Email Threat Trends
Phishing Is Up
29hours
162%
since 2010

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PHISH

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• “DMARC protects almost two-thirds
of the world’s consumer mailboxes
and 85% of US customers.”
• DMARC protects your brand from
direct domain phishing attacks
• Instructs mailbox providers on how to
handle unauthenticated messages
Source: Return Path DMARC Intelligence Report, Feb 2015
Solution: Data

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Source: DMARC.org, press release, February 2015
Anti-phishing standard today, inbox placement factor tomorrow
DMARC
“If your domain doesn’t protect itself with DMARC, you
will be increasingly likely to see your messages sent
directly to a spam folder or even rejected.”
John Rae-Grant
Product Manager, Google

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Case Study - Blocket
70%
Drop in Support Tickets
99%
Drop in Phishing Messages

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Reach the
Right Inbox
With the Right
Message
At the Right
Time

41. #RPWTSydney • London • São Paulo • Chicago • New York • San Francisco • Los Angeles • Paris