Email marketing is one of the best channels available for marketers looking to generate a high ROI. In fact, email marketing generates $36 for every $1 spent. Not only is it cost-effective, but there’s also the possibility to be highly targeted, to test content, and get greater visibility on response. That’s why we thoroughly recommend it to our lead generation and e-commerce clients.

Yet, far too often we see businesses confusing high volume email deployment with your typical newsletter mailers. The fact is they are starkly different.

With the latter, you’re preaching to the choir. You should have a list of engaged contacts who are waiting to receive your newsletter - hence why email platforms such as Mailchimp and Hubspot that specialize in this form of marketing expect minimal unsubscribe rates and high response rates.

With high volume email, however, you’re sending out offers en masse to consumers or businesses who you have determined should be in your target audience due to various behavioral or demographic factors, but you’re coming to them cold. In fact, try using Mailchimp for high volume email deployment and you may well find yourself without an email provider!

There is a real danger for advertisers who don’t understand the issues with lead generation emails - MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWS, and other traditional ESP’s will shut down users without a warning, which can be catastrophic for some businesses. We have seen this with clients who try to send lead generation mailings out through their standard deployment partner.

In order to demystify this highly effective form of email marketing, we’ve put together some tips based on the experiences we’ve had with our clients’ email campaign deployments which will set you up for success in the future.

Make Sure Your Data Is Up to Scratch

First and foremost, the quality of the data you use to send your high-volume email REALLY does make a huge difference to the success of your campaign. Marketers who use segmented campaigns see as much as a 760% increase in revenue.

Think about this: one of the trickiest elements of high-volume email is making sure your email is actually delivered. If ISPs like Yahoo and Gmail start seeing errors in the email addresses you’re mailing, your high-volume email will be shut down quicker than you can say “high volume email deployment”. That’s why you really need to be sure of the quality of the data you’re using. Another thing to consider is that your email is all permission-based. This means that every member of your list has opted-in to receive third-party offers that match their interests. Otherwise, your emails will be marked as spam by the ISPs and you will be blocked from sending any more.

At LBDigital, our focus is to ensure that your email deliverability, engagement, and conversation rates are as high as possible. We’ll consult with you to understand what your ultimate call to action is and match this to contacts who have recently shown the same behavior. For example, let’s imagine you’re a mortgage provider who is looking for a list data segment to email. We’ll start by identifying people who have recently shown interest in a mortgage via online behaviors. We’ll then add other layers such as demographic targeting, home value, and location. But then we’ll go one further to ensure a high response rate: we’ll add a layer of behavioral targeting, selecting consumers who have recently taken an action like filling out a form on a website. This helps twofold: not only does the recency of the action ensure the contact information we have on file is up-to-date and accurate, but it also means the consumer is in-market for your service and therefore much more likely to respond.

Quality Data for High Volume Email Campaigns

In fact we typically see a deliverability rate of 97% as well as 2 to 3 times the conversion rate and the highest earnings per click.

According to Nora Brophy, Senior Vice President at Email Service Provider, ResponseGenius:

“To succeed with high volume email, your data needs to be pristine and LBDigital’s data is exemplary - always clean and on point. Their data consistently outperforms in this arena!”

Work with an Email Service Provider Who Specializes in High Volume Email

It might seem like an obvious piece of advice but we’re always surprised by how many marketing teams think they can get away with using a service like Mailchimp for high-volume email. As mentioned above, trying to cut corners is only likely to end up with your account being suspended, your time wasted and your email marketing plans in tatters.

When we’re approached by brands interested in email deployment, we work with an email service provider who specializes in high-volume email, like ResponseGenius. Remember: the job of an ISP filter is to stop what they consider as SPAM. These specialized ESPs have dedicated teams in place to ensure your email makes it into your prospects’ inboxes. Not only will they be constantly monitoring open rates to check your email is going out as it should, but they also have mitigation teams who will be in direct contact with the ISPs in case anything looks like it might be going awry.

They’ll constantly rotate IPs and use different sending domains to ensure your email makes it through. They may have 12 to 15 campaigns scheduled for one day, each with 200,000 contacts per campaign. They’ll also stagger the start times throughout the day to ensure the best possible deliverability rate.

As Nora Brophy of ResponseGenius puts it:

We’re talking about ‘brute force’ deliverability

The Response You Receive Will Only Be As Good As The Offer You Send

You’ve got super accurate data and you’re working with a great email service provider but you’re still seeing a poor response? The problem could lie in your offer.

Maybe your competitors have sent out something similar and beaten you to the punch. Maybe your offer isn’t seasonally relevant - who wants to think mortgages when they’re on vacation?! Remember: the beauty of email marketing is that you can test the response you're likely to receive. If you’re seeing a low conversion rate, try spicing things up and changing your offer.

Get in Touch

If you’re interested in learning more about high-volume email, speak to us today about our email deployment service. We also have data segments of active email openers - ideal for your upcoming campaign!