The news of NP6

The NP6 group reports that scores aimed at optimising the targeting and the deliverability of marketing e-mail campaigns are to be made available. This is the first solution developed jointly between NP6 and SOCIO Logiciels, a company specialising in data mining which joined the group last April. 

Deliverability, the main catalyst for the availability of scores

The quality of the database (recency, commitment, reactivity) is increasingly defining the future for e-mail distribution. This is already mainly the case for MSPs such as Hotmail/Outlook or Gmail which, based on behaviour such as peaks in complaints or a lack of reactivity, no longer hesitate to send mailshots to the spam folder. Among institutional ISPs, waves of complaints, considered abnormal by abuse departments, will lead at best to being placed in the spam folder or to the IP address being blocked. In the worst case scenario, the brand sending the e-mails may even be blocked by the ISPs. Yet Laurent Garnier, Deliverability Expertise Director of the NP6 group, stresses that "if messaging system operators decide to distribute the message based on individual behaviour, the best solution for optimising its deliverability involves performing this individual analysis task before the reactivity." The objective? To better understand why these targets react or don't react, in order to predict the main behaviour affecting the deliverability of e-mail campaigns.

Studying the behaviour of the targets lies at the heart of the scoring operation

NP6 and the data mining teams of SOCIO Logiciels, the data intelligence specialist acquired in April 2013, have therefore developed several scores aimed at optimising deliverability:

- Score for tendency to react to e-mails: used to automatically classify e-mail addresses, from the most likely to the least likely to react to an e-mail. The aim? To definitively discard those targets which are probably the least reactive. The tests performed show a 20% increase in the response rate.

- Score for detecting subscription cancellations: detecting the addresses most likely to opt out: the time between various reactions which means that beyond a certain threshold, there is a high risk of the person cancelling their subscription.

- Score for reactivation: among the addresses which no longer react to e-mail contact, which ones have a chance of becoming active again, and after how long? Thanks to the notes allocated to their targets via these scores, marketers can then better segment their database by isolating the targets with the lowest scores in order to concentrate on the addresses with the highest scores. They can thereby trigger customised marketing scenarios, such as a preference centre for non-reactive targets. Preventive actions may also be put in place: adaptation of marketing pressure or the content of the messages, definitive discarding of the most passive targets.

Grâce aux notes attribuées à leurs cibles via ces scores, les marqueteurs peuvent ensuite mieux segmenter leur base de données en isolant les ciblages les moins bien scorés pour se concentrer sur les adresses les mieux scorées.  Et déclencher des scénarios marketing personnalisés, tels qu’un centre de préférences pour les cibles non-réactives. Des actions de prévention peuvent aussi être mises en place : adaptation de la pression marketing ou du contenu des messages, mise à l’écart définitive des cibles les plus passives.

"The aim is to contact only those targets with a high probability of reacting positively to the message sent. By placing the behaviour of the targets at the heart of the analysis, these scores allow brands to better target and anticipate future behaviour. Not only do the brands optimise the deliverability of their e-mails, they are also able to concentrate on value-generating targets and optimise their ROI", states Laurent Garnier.

A scoring module available in MailPerformance in 2014

Additional scores (cross selling, geocoding, qualification, etc.) will soon be made available to brands. These scores will be integrated as a MailPerformance module during 2014. "This new module in SaaS mode will allow companies to combine the analytical dimension of SOCIO Logiciels with the segmentation and targeting capacities of MailPerformance", concludes Thierry Vallaud, Data Mining and Modelling Manager of SOCIO Logiciels.

Currently, nearly 50% of e-mails are read from a mobile device (source: Litmus 2013). As a direct consequence of this, marketing managers wish to adapt their e-mails to the rules of Responsive Design, the art of adapting a support to all reading platforms (PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.). In view of the buzz around this subject, sometimes seen as the new key to success for e-mail campaigns.

Emailing and Responsive Design: more than a revolution, a natural evolution in use

Beyond the quality of display of an e-mail, which varies based on the device being used to read it by the recipients, it is the change in the very behaviour of the Internet user, now a mobile Internet user, which explains the interest of advertisers and professionals in Responsive Design. What is the impact for e-mailing of this revolution in use? Among new opportunities and technical complexities, which solutions may be adopted to support the new behaviour of recipients? Responsive Design is neither a revolution nor a magic solution: it is an evolution allowing a widening of the strategy, envisaging new targeting possibilities, and adapting to the changes in habits of the recipients.

Ensure there are good reasons for changing to "Responsive Design": Five steps before technical implementation

It is essential for marketing departments to reflect on the added value of their e-mailing campaigns and measure the benefits of integrating Responsive Design before envisaging its technical aspect (HTML, CSS style). The White Paper details the 5 essential steps to intelligently integrate Responsive Design into a marketing e-mail strategy:

1.    Clearly define the objective(s) of e-mails adapted to mobiles:

The more precise the objective, the easier it will be to quantify the measures. Advertisers may wish to improve the conversion rate or ensure coherence between all communication supports (website, e-mail, etc.) of their brand, for example.

2.    Determine the reading habits of mobile Internet user recipients:

Recent studies have shown that Internet users use their reading devices (PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.) in different ways depending on the time of day. Behavioural analysis modules such as the Reading Context, available in MailPerformance, are used to identify the complete reading path of its targets. This module proposes an analysis of the efficiency of the e-mails on different devices (computer, mobile, tablet, games console, smart TV, etc.) and operating systems (Android, Windows, etc.). The distinction is also made between different mobile brands (Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc.). The data relating to the reading context (opening and click by type of device and by e-mail sent) may then be used to create e-mail actions specific to each mobile reading device of the targets.

3.    Dynamic e-mail headers (subject and pre-header):

The subject and the pre-header, making up the header of the e-mail, are the first calls to action for readers. They can be seen even before the content of the messages and must therefore draw the mobile Internet user's full attention, even before they open the e-mail:

4.    Texts, images, call to action:

Opt for quality and relevance rather than quantity  Reduce the existing content (texts, images, call to action, etc.) for the mobile version (images not read by certain operating systems, screen size, etc.). To do this, it is important to focus on the key elements, starting from the e-mail design phase.

5.    Adapt the landing pages:

Optimised landing pages must be designed for the mobile device in order to avoid any long waits. Faced with mobile Internet users whose attention is quickly drawn away, the user experience must be as fluid and as coherent as possible.

Responsive Design and e-mailing: beyond the bandwagon effect

Beyond an occasional integration in response to a trend, Responsive Design applied to marketing e-mails must be considered above all as an additional opportunity to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time, whatever the reading platform . Be sure therefore to offer a coherent experience beyond the actual content of the e-mail. Without the framework of a global project, and without prior analysis, the risks are high: poor communication or excessively complex communication with customers and a negative return on investment often restrict the bandwagon effect.

NP6 recently integrated two new investors and announced the signing of its new prestigious branches. Amongst its new customers, MailPerformance, which is a branch of NP6, joined  Habitat, Adamence and  Union des  Annonceurs, to create an e-marketing project.

CEO of NP6, Stephane Zittoun says:

"If stakeholders , communication agencies and e -commerce still represents a significant portion of our new customers , we can predict an increase arrival of luxury players , industrial players and public actors. From all of our customers, we see an increase in the use of e- mail marketing and SMS. Our customers want to rely on the expertise of deliverability in order to build and sustain a lasting relationship between users and their brand at every stage of the marketing cycle ie: collecting , processing and sending ."

Communication Agencies , marketing and advertisers  and new users were attracted by the efficiency of MailPerformance.  MailPerformance makes it possible to easily generate various templates visible by the user (mini scripted websites, forms, surveys ...) This is directly connected to the client’s database to trigger appropriate actions. All functions of MailPerformance are connected to the statistics module and its powerful personalisation engine.

Adamence, Habitat and the Union des Annonceurs have been  customers since 2012.  Habitat’s Product Manager Laura Boutboul says: "Due to the availability and expertise of  NP6, they knew how to quickly make use of MailPerformance. In the heart of a small team,  MailPerformance’s  ability of using multiple-accounts, enabled us to receive newsletters in several languages.”

Alexandre Murat , CEO of Adamence : " In addition to the effectiveness and easy use of  MailPerformance, we were attracted by its statistics module and its personalisation engine, which  allowed us to have an accurate analysis and creation of relevant segments. We could also quickly connect MailPerformance onto our platform Magento and since then we have already seen a significant improvement in deliverability rates , click and open rates for our campaigns which means a better ROI. "

Claudie Voland – Marketing Director: "Thanks to the expertise of the production team and MailPerformance’s advanced features, we have aligned our entire web communication to our members including newsletters and invitations to our events."

Stephane Zitoun concludes:  “We welcome Habitat, Adamence  and the Union des Annonceurs  as our new customers and we are delighted to provide a service that is tailored to their e- marketing needs.”