Should you consider industry standards for Open and Click rates?

Our eMarketing team is often approached by clients for industry statistics on open and click rates in an attempt to measure email marketing campaigns.

While wanting to benchmark your campaign results against an industry average is understandable, it is somewhat misplaced as no two target audiences, campaign messages or commercial relationships are the same.

Open rate is influenced by many factors:

• The relationship between your brand and the recipient - have you historically provided relevant and valuable content, so as to build a trust relationship with the target audience?
• The relevancy of the content to that recipient - is the offer/message in this campaign relevant to that recipient, at that moment?
• The subject line and from address - can you slice through the inbox clutter (especially at this time of year when the noise reaches peak levels)?

Click-through rate is also influenced by the above factors, especially the recipient's previous interaction with the company. If customers have a relationship with the brand, they're more likely to click through on a call to action that interests them. Click-through rate is also influenced by a couple more factors:

• Call to action - is the action required to take up the offer clear and simple?
• Timing - have you tested what day of the week and time of day gets the best response?
• Layout - people read emails in a specific way. To achieve the best possible click through rate, have you tested which layouts produce the highest response?

Because no two campaigns could have identical elements in each of the influencing factors, the usefulness of an 'industry standard' is questionable.

Create your own standard

A better approach is to create your own benchmark by measuring your own campaigns against the contributing factors and then strive to improve on those rates. If you send out an email newsletter, then look to better the open and click-through rates on the previous edition. This will also drive the right measurements, as well as shape your split-test plan. For example; if October's newsletter beat all your previous open rates - record what you did, and test that approach in your next edition. This way, you are constantly aiming to improve on your own measurements.

But make sure you always measure the rates in the same way, otherwise the exercise is pointless.

Can't do without industry benchmarks?

If you still feel you need to measure against some kind of industry averages, here are some useful resources:

Mailchimp's Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry
Mailer Mailer's Email Marketing Metrics Report
Online Marketing Trends

Alison Treadaway
striata.com

Inject some life into transactional messages

Working in the email messaging space means I receive more email than the average person, not just from the day to day emails at work, but also various newsletters and services that I've signed up to. As a result, I tend to expect a lot from the emails I receive - all the boxes must be ticked.

Today, most of the transactional emails hitting my inbox (eg. notifications) are still devoid of any branding, let alone any form of marketing message. Companies aren't capitalizing on the valuable marketing opportunities that these emails present.

Make use of the best marketing real-estate

Incorporating marketing offers within your transactional communications provides you with some of the best marketing real estate. Why? Because these are emails that customers are expecting, be it a confirmation email or even an eBill. These emails have the highest open rates, due to the fact that customers are expecting and willing to receive them.

 Filling the massive gap

Transactional messages vary from birthday emails, to invoices, statements and order confirmations, to name but a few. The biggest issue is that these well performing email communications are usually poorly structured, almost never updated and usually not tracked at all.

We have turned email marketing into a science and this science shouldn't be lost on these opportunities. It's not just about including a marketing banner on transactional emails, but also about including marketing offers that are relevant to each customer.

Relevancy means you need to know your customer, so you can identify which products or services are interesting and relevant to them, at the time the operational message is sent. This way, you can provide messaging that is complementary to the operational message, without overpowering the core message. Take a flight confirmation email for example: including great hotel offers is complementary marketing, but including information on other flight options is not. Therefore, profiling and customizing offers is important.
 

The stats say it all

Here are a few stats to give you some indication of the power of these emails:

• A major travel site generates 45% of its email profits from triggered messages that take up only 3% to 5% of its total message volume.
• An online specialty-products retailer found that 40% of its email revenue comes from transactional/triggered messages, which take up only 4% of volume.
• Birthday email messages generate 25 times the revenue as a regular broadcast email for a uniforms retailer.

Source: Email Insider "Triggered Emails: Low Volume, High Returns" (2010)

 So where to from here?

Once you have identified these transactional emails, start incorporating your company's branding, because it's not always about marketing your products, it's also about marketing your brand. Once that is done, start profiling the customer base and adding marketing that is relevant, not only to the message, but also to the customer. Remember that it's not always about the company, but more importantly it's about the customer and meeting their needs.

Mia Papanicolaou
striata.com

Time to stamp out rising postal costs – go paperless!

There has been a great deal written about the decline of the Post Office, while postage costs in the UK rise to a record high. But precious little comment has been made on the impact this is having on British businesses that rely on this service.

Whilst the average punter on the street remains unconcerned and unaware of the costs involved in posting a letter, businesses have seen a 10% increase in cost and a slow, but steady decline in service as indicated in this article by the BBC. A 5 pence increase may have very little impact on a family sending a few letters a month, but to a company sending 50,000 letters a day this amounts to a whopping £800k a year - straight off the bottom line.

Post office wants to revamp at our cost

In today's economic climate, organisations are looking to reduce overheads in order to remain competitive. Yet, the Post Office implements monumental cost increases designed to prop up an institution that has been steadily failing for years. As a forty-something UK resident I can remember when a first class stamp meant guaranteed next day delivery. Indeed, I can also remember what it was like to be proud of our postal service.

Look at the big picture - if the Post Office is getting an extra £2 million a year from your electricity supplier, it won't be long before that increase hits you, the consumer. It makes one think twice about denying your service provider savings of the cost of a stamp by opting to go paperless – suddenly it's not about the supplier benefitting but in fact, you and me - the consumer.

Going paperless is a win-win for business and consumers alike

The eBilling technology that is available today provides consumers with a superior service to the cleft stick and papyrus, as well as to the Royal Mail. Email delivery of bills, statements, insurance documents is faster, more cost effective and provides better marketing opportunities for billers. Businesses can also benefit from paperless processes by reducing their carbon footprint, improving their service and ultimately reducing costs.

The choice is yours - go paperless and save or allow the post office to chew on your bottom line in a desperate attempt for survival.

Eric Darling
striata.com

5 Reasons why PDF will be the saviour of eBilling and eInvoicing

For many years we have written about why PDF for email bills is the ideal process for eBilling and eInvoicing alike. The proof is in the adoption statistics - 'push' email billing solutions produce double or triple the adoption of paperless processes when compared to web portals.

A recent article by renowned eInvoicing commentator Friso de Yong; 7 myths and 7 facts about PDF invoices, ended with this question to readers: "... aren't PDF e-invoices a great starting point for (1) massive adoption of e-invoicing and (2) a transition to more efficient forms of e-invoicing?"

A key point of this argument is that the bulk of eInvoicing (including EIPP) will be done between SME's and that they will most likely utilise PDF as the format and email as the transport layer.

 

Why PDF is the perfect format for eBilling and eInvoicing:

1. PDF is the accepted standard for exchanging documents between different parties

A parallel can quickly be drawn in the eBilling space, (readers should reacquaint themselves with the differences between eInvoicing and eBilling).

PDF is the perfect format for bills, statements and other documents that can be dematerialised and delivered over email. It provides the option of password security (see Striata's view on No registration, shared secret usage) that is far superior to "secured with spit", a process that the Post Office still seems to think is a good idea.

2. PDF provides multiple layers for both presentation and data

PDFs can include a data layer or an embedded data file with relative ease - this way, the recipient can extract the data into their accounting system or open it in their favourite tool for editing and manipulation.

PDF technology also allows the embedded data to be extracted from the PDF, combined with user input and then reposted back to a server for processing. This is the same process that facilitates 'One-Click' bill payment directly from within the email or mobile bill, which has also been proven to speed up payments and reduce debtors days.

3. Delivering PDF documents by email helps drive paperless adoption

eBilling adoption rates have long disappointed the supporters of paperless processes. While enthusiasts have registered at eBilling portals, many refuse to turn off their paper safety net. Reasons for this behaviour range from "my accountant needs it" to "I like to have a copy in my filing system". Delivering a PDF document by email allows it to be forwarded immediately and electronically saved and backed up and yes - it can also be printed, if required. This makes the transition to a paperless environment less daunting.

4. Secure PDF processes can facilitate portal registration

Striata is often approached by companies with online portals that are languishing in the mid teens for user adoption. No matter how much marketing the company has applied; where there is a registration process and 'pull' back to a web portal, customer adoption plateaus well short of the anticipated numbers. We've proven time and time again that using a secure PDF process can facilitate portal registration through trusted links.

We do believe that there is a requirement for an online portal, as some customers like to have a history or archive of their documents in one place. In fact, the rise of the consolidator portal is testament to this requirement.

5. eConsent splash pages can streamline the on-boarding process

PDF documents also lend themselves to accepting and storing electronic consent. This is often a key hurdle in the go-paperless process. Multiple layers in the PDF allow the user to be presented with a 'splash' page that requires their consent before viewing the actual document. In this way, the requesting, gaining and storing of the electronic consent is all handled as part of a seamless customer experience, that drives the high adoption rates e-billing managers around the world are battling to achieve.

 

The answer to the question?

So in answer to Friso's question "... aren't PDF e-invoices a great starting point for (1) massive adoption of e-invoicing and (2) a transition to more efficient forms of e-invoicing?"

I say YES! I agree.

Michael Wright
striata.com

Putting out a welcome mat in the digital world

"Hello. Welcome. Good to meet you. I hope you enjoy your time with us." These phrases are regarded as a common courtesy in daily personal interactions, yet they are not carried over into the digital space. In a virtual world, where people are 'meeting' and engaging with brands for the first time, it has become imperative that brands 'set the stage' by initiating an email welcome campaign for new customers. This establishes trust, expectations and communicates important information about the brand.

What happens when a customer signs up for a service or purchases a product from your organisation within an ecommerce environment? In many instances they are sent a proof of order or purchase. When signing up for regular newsletter communications, an online confirmation is also sent, followed by an email requesting that the customer confirm their registration. These transactional notifications serve an important purpose, but cannot replace the value of providing a customer with an orientation on what to expect of future interactions with your company.

An email 'welcome' communication series is vital, as it opens a dialogue with your customers and is an opportune time to gather feedback on their preferences. This can be done through surveys, polls and setting up of online preferences, enabling targeted communications that will keep your customers engaged in the future.

More than just a welcome...

Welcome campaigns should be designed according to the complexity of your service offering. As an example; I recently signed up with a popular rewards program for an international airline. After initiating the relationship, I received a 6 part welcome series. The series was sent to me over a 20 day period with each email addressing a different aspect of the service - thus orienting me one step at a time.

If a customer has registered for a service that includes multiple communication types from your organisation like an eBill, transactional mail, newsletters, special offers etc, inform your customer about these communications and when they can typically expect to receive them.

Failing to address these important areas is a lost opportunity at a time when a customer's engagement with your brand is at a peak – it is now that they are more likely to open and click-through.

 

Basic rules to remember when introducing a welcome campaign to your customer communication lifecycle:

• Use a clear, branded 'from' address
• Demonstrate how to add your 'from' address to the safe sender's list
• Include the word 'welcome' in the subject line
• Get the information needed to personalise the salutation - it's a fact that personalised welcome emails are more effective
• Send your welcome mail as soon after registration / interaction with your company as possible - the more time left between the initial customer contact and the welcome mail, the lower the open and click through rates
• Use this opportunity to engage with your customer through other channels e.g. following company on social media, downloading mobile applications etc

Without a warm welcome and a friendly tour of your home, your new guests may feel lost and not stay very long – in fact, they will probably find the back door and make a quick exit. Don't let the same thing happen to your new customers.

Nicola Els
striata.com

Secured with spit - Post Office insists letters are safer than email

It's not easy being a Post Office nowadays! Globally, postal services are being adversely affected by the changing communication preferences of consumers - the state of the United States Postal Service (USPS) highlights this issue very clearly.

The USPS lost a staggering US$8.5 billion in 2010 – that's $25 million each day. While a portion can be blamed on excessive retirement and health benefit payments, the fact is that postal mail volume has decreased by 50% over the past 10 years. This is due to the rise of email and other electronic messaging options that suit our modern lifestyle better. Sure, we probably all appreciate the sense of occasion when we receive a personal letter, but how many of us are willing to take the time to actually write one?

 

Snail mail more secure than email?

Postal services are now looking at how they can adapt to the evolving communications paradigm; searching for a niche they can fill to keep the business afloat; looking for ways to turn the tide on electronic communications. Recent internet security scares have provided a straw for USPS to grasp at and their recent advertising campaign has focused on the safety and security of snail-mail; "A refrigerator [with a paper bill stuck to it with a magnet] has never been hacked," they tell us. Some USPS executives suggest focusing on the hand delivery of documents too sensitive to be entrusted to email.

Certainly web-portals can be hacked and so, there is concern that phishing attacks can compromise the security of such sites. Such security breaches can be on a massive scale, as has been recently observed. But how about secure email delivery of bills and statements, policies and other sensitive documents?

 

It comes down to 256-bit encryption vs. the trusty postman

The delivery of password protected, encrypted documents via email is fundamentally the safest, most secure option. Why? Because there is no central repository to hack into, and should the email somehow fall into the wrong hands, 256-bit encryption ensures that it can't be opened without the password. How long do you think a hacker would be prepared to spend to open just one eBill or eStatement, with no facility to go any further once he's "in"?

And the idea that human involvement in the delivery process is more secure than using electronic channels, is also flawed. Here in Hong Kong, we have an excellent Post Office, but in the past two weeks, I've had two letters delivered to my house by mistake. One was a credit-card bill addressed to someone in the next village – the postman clearly misread the address, and the other was an insurance policy, where the recipient name wasn't mine, but the address was – a data error at the insurance company. In both cases, I'd opened the envelopes and read the documents before I'd realised they weren't for me. In the electronic world, the credit-card statement would never have been sent to me because email servers don't "misread" email addresses, and had I received the insurance policy due to a data entry error, I wouldn't have been able to open it without the required password.

So, while I feel for the plight of the Post Office and I enjoy the friendly wave from my postman as he does his rounds, running a PR and Marketing campaign that smears email security and focusing on the delivery of sensitive documents isn't going to provide the necessary lifeline to stop the decline in postal figures.

I don't have the answer to the Post Offices' problems, but I suggest the following: if you're looking to deliver documents to your customers, sensitive or otherwise, perhaps you should consider the following questions:

• What is the fastest method of delivery available?
• What's the most cost-effective method of delivery?
• What level of security is required to ensure the safety of the data being delivered?
• What can I do to encourage my customers to adopt the most appropriate delivery channel?

And if the answers aren't immediately clear, don't "go postal", just drop Striata an email - maybe we can help...

Keith Russell
striata.com

What if your eBill could remind you to pay?

As an email marketing and billing provider, I choose to receive most communication by email, including the majority of my monthly bills (except for those vendors that don't offer email billing – SO 'last year'). Every month, when I open an electronic invoice to see how much I have to pay and by when, I end up manually creating a reminder in my calendar, so as not to miss the payment due date and potentially be charged overdue fees. Or even worse, have my electricity or telephone cut off!

Now, I'm the first person to admit that I covet efficiency and the concept of a bill payment reminder would work really well for me. But there's no way I am going to use a web-based Bill consolidator to remind me, nor download an 'app' onto my desktop or mobile - even if it's free, it's just too much work for all my different billers. If I have to log into my Online Banking website to set a reminder (and many banks offer this) I might as well just schedule the actual payment. Hence none of these methods score highly on my efficiency gauge.

This got me thinking . . . what if the eBill itself could remind me - on the appropriate date?

All it takes is a 'Set Reminder' button on the eBill, which enables me to request a payment reminder by email or text. I can select how far in advance I want to be reminded and even an appropriate time of day.

What is sent to my inbox or mobile is something like this:

Payment Reminder: pay City Power the amount of $138.80 by 14/09/11.

What this means to me is avoiding the consequences of a missed payment, which is not only inconvenient, but it could also result in financial penalties or termination of service.

For the Biller, this means increasing the likelihood of receiving my payment by the due date, which for most businesses is an attractive proposition. I suspect Billers would even be happy to cover the minimal cost of the reminder message, as it would improve their DSO.

But the potential for efficiency and convenience doesn't stop there.

With the steady increase of consumers using the Internet and mobile technology to do things faster whilst on the move, it would be a smart 'next step' to enable payment directly from within the payment reminder.

Think about it - not only does the eBill remind you to pay, but you can pay immediately, with just one click or call. Now that's sexy!

The payment reminder for mobile (USSD) looks like this:

Payment Reminder: pay City Power the amount of $138.80 by 14/09/11. Dial *123*456# to pay.

And the email looks like this:

Payment Reminder: pay City Power the amount of $138.80 by 14/09/11. Click here to pay.

My efficiency gauge is going into overdrive!

Interested?

As a consumer, would you use a service like this?

And if you're a Biller, would you pay for the reminder notices?

Alison Treadaway
striata.com

Dedicated IP or shared?

The effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns could be related to your decision to use either a dedicated or shared Internet Protocol (IP) address.

One of the key challenges of deliverability is achieving and maintaining an excellent sender reputation with ISPs and Webmail service providers. Your sender reputation is one of the deciding factors of whether to block your emails or let them through.

Sender reputation is associated with a sender's IP address – the theory is: if you have a good sender reputation your IP address can be trusted, which equals valid email and a higher delivery potential. There are many additional factors that can affect deliverability, but let's zoom in on the specific issue of dedicated vs. shared IP.

Understanding the implications of a shared IP address

If you are using an ESP to deliver your email marketing campaigns, it's likely that your emails are being sent from a shared IP address used by multiple clients on that system and infrastructure.

Sharing an IP address has many benefits, but there are certain risks too – which a reputable ESP should be managing on your behalf anyway.

The good and the bad of a shared IP address:

• Good sender reputation is developed by consistently sending email, ensuring the bounce rate is kept low and the interaction is high (opens and clicks). If you are not a consistent email sender – sharing an IP enhances your sender reputation by leveraging off other senders on the same IP.
• A good reputation is also derived by adhering to email best practice - benefitting you if these sound policies are adopted by all the senders sharing the IP.
• The flipside of sharing is that you are at risk of other senders behaving badly and should the shared IP earn a poor sender reputation, your deliverability will be adversely affected.
• 
  

If a shared IP is not desirable, then what do you need to know about a dedicated IP?

• You have full control. Your practices alone determine the sender reputation of your IP address. There is no risk of others spoiling the party.
• Unfortunately, the flip side of this is that you need to maintain regular volumes to keep your IP address 'warm', which can be difficult if you do not communicate with your database on a frequent basis (at least weekly – if not daily).
• Over and above this, if you happen to slip up on the odd occasion and not adhere to best practice, you run the risk of putting your IP address under threat of blacklisting. You do not have the luxury of falling back on the good sender reputation achieved by others.

To sum up:

1. You need to discuss the benefits of a dedicated vs. a shared IP address strategy with your ESP.
2. Question their shared IP sender reputation and what proactive measures they are taking to keep their shared environments in good standing with ISP's.
3. Your ESP should also consider your overall communication strategy and advise you on the best fit for your needs, rather than what is best for their needs.

Haydn James
striata.com

Why send out an RFP? Understanding the why, will help focus the RFP

In a world full of choice, the RFP seems like the perfect process to find that Email Service Provider (ESP) to meet all your goals. Or is it?

Time and time again, this process fails, not in terms of appointing a vendor, but in terms of finding the right partner to implement the best solution for an organisation.

So where does it all go wrong and what's the solution?

This is the first in a two-part guest blog post I recently did for Email Vendor Selection based on finding the perfect ESP for an organisation. It focuses on the reasons RFPs are put together and whether this lengthy process is always necessary.

Before embarking on the RFP process, ask yourself whether the reasons for undertaking this process are sound. Here are a few points to take into consideration before you produce a RFP:

What is your motivation for an RFP?

To get better pricing - if you'd like better pricing from your current ESP, rather go back and negotiate. Sending out an RFP to get better pricing can damage the relationship with your ESP, and remember it's a hugely time-consuming process - not only for you, but for all the vendors involved. If corporate governance requires you to get pricing from a number of vendors, rather prepare a one-pager with your current requirements, then ask for quotes.

To use it as an 'idea and strategy' exercise - you need to be 90-100% sure of the strategy before you invite vendors in. Don't use the exercise to get a strategy. If you are unsure of the direction you want to take, rather find an ESP that can strategize with you. Keep in mind that an RFP won't necessarily highlight the best strategists.

To compare apples with apples - no two ESPs are the same. Email marketing includes a lot more than just features. What is the team structure in the company? Do they have a high staff churn rate? What do other vendors have to say about them? These answers won't necessarily be answered in an RFP process. Do research outside of this process to understand whether the ESP is the right fit.

To tick the technology box - most ESPs provide the same technical service and can give you a list of features that sound great on paper. Again, an RFP is unnecessary here as there are reputable established tools, such as those found on the Email Vendor Selection site where you can compare functionality.

The right approach to an RFP:

If a simple feature check is not what you're after, then an RFP may be the right choice for you. To get the most out of this exercise, consider the following points:

1. Look for an ESP that is ideally positioned to help you to fulfil your specific requirements, based on your email marketing strategy.
2. If this is a new company strategy and the process is required from a corporate governance perspective, do your research before going out to RFP.
3. If you're serious about changing your current ESP, make sure to document the reasons for the change (e.g. account management, deliverability, cannot fulfil the entire scope of requirements) and structure the RFP accordingly.
4. Scope out the specific goals that need to be met. Knowing what you want means getting the right questions on the RFP. The feedback from the participating ESPs will be so much more valuable.
5. Meet the potential ESPs before-hand and then use the RFP process to map out the functionality, structure and pricing across these ESPs. Meeting up with ESPs will determine whether they will suit your company culture and if they have the staff required to meet your specific requirements.

Can Asia lead the eStatement adoption evolution?

I was speaking to a group of banking people from fast-developing countries like Indonesia, India and Pakistan at a conference in Singapore last month. Their views on eBilling and eStatements were very similar - adoption rates for going paperless are still very low and they place the blame on low internet penetration. As a result, some banks are postponing eBilling implementation until there is a clear shift in the market towards paperless initiatives.

Recently however, Asia seems to leapfrog the West when it comes to technology adoption – consider mobile phone penetration compared to land-lines. This got me thinking whether the same will happen with eBilling? It seems very likely that Asia could lead the world in eBilling and eStatement adoption as the internet penetration explodes…

Default new customers to eStatements

The Asian banking market isn’t as saturated as it is in developed countries, so there isn’t the same legacy of paper billing to contend with. The massive growth in new banking customers however, provides a great opportunity for bankers to default them to eStatements.

Psychology also plays a role - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (the premise that people must have their basic needs like food and shelter before they seek other things like luxuries and self-growth) works with modern day services too.

What comes first as a person starts earning enough money to enjoy more of the modern conveniences, such as mobile phones, computers, scooters, bank accounts and credit cards? What is the most accessible trapping of modern life? The answer is clearly internet access and an email address. Email provides vital connectivity and it’s generally free, thanks to Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo.

Email is the common denominator

The question is: How many people registering for a new bank-account, taking out a credit card or using a post-paid mobile phone service already have an email address? Logically, it’s a huge proportion!

And whilst it’s certainly true that many developing countries have relatively low Internet penetration – e.g. 7% in India and 12% in Indonesia – they also have huge populations, so these percentages translate to 81 million and 30 million connections respectively. With the right strategy in place, banks can drive eBilling adoption to this connected group and realise ROI within a matter of weeks.

Steps to achieving your adoption goal:

In order to capitalize on this opportunity and improve eStatement adoption, follow these simple steps:

• Ask your customers for their email addresses at every touch-point.
• Make ‘email address’ a mandatory field on all application forms.
• Send out an eWelcome Pack – useful numbers, branch locations etc. via email to every new email address/customer you have; include lifecycle messaging in your online strategy.
• Make eStatements the default for all new accounts and use transactional messaging to further reduce paper communications.

The same processes will work in mature markets too, but developing markets have more ‘low-hanging fruit’ - a large number of new bank accounts.

Don’t let low Internet penetration figures delay the drive for eStatements – maximize returns with a clear focus and robust paperless adoption strategy.

And if you’re not sure how to develop that strategy, then give us a call.

Lessons learned from Citibank's data breach

Earlier this month Citigroup's credit card portfolio was hacked by criminals who apparently exploited a flaw in the browser window. This enabled them to go from one account to many others, capturing names, account numbers, emails and transaction history for roughly 360,000 customer accounts. The Ponemon Institute estimates the average cost of the data breach at $214 per compromised record, or $77 million in Citibank’s case.

Other recent high profile breaches include Sony Online Entertainment (over 100 million records) and Epsilon (they won’t say exactly how many). According to DATALOSSdb; breaches whether through hacking, loss of records or even theft of snail mail are occurring on a daily basis, and it’s not only large organizations that are targets. This month’s list includes banks, insurance and healthcare providers, utilities, government and educational organizations as well as supermarket chains.

“Growing concern about paperless” for consumers

What does this mean for businesses? It indicates that the threat of a data breach is extremely real and should be taken very seriously, but also, it requires companies to address customer concerns about doing business online. A growing fear among “paperless” consumers (and those considering eBilling) is “what if my online account is hacked, changed or deleted and I have no record of my usage or bill pay activity?”. One consumer advocate suggested that we all go back to receiving paper statements in the mail. That way we have tangible proof of all recent activity and payments.

But is going back to paper statements really a viable solution?

It’s an extreme theory, but one that resonates with some people. One of the biggest points of resistance to going electronic is that customers feel they are losing control over their bill or statement. Those that do access bills online complain that in order to manage their many accounts effectively, they need to visit each biller’s website and print or download a PDF copy of their statement from each one. Surely this is more hassle than waiting for the mail to arrive?

Winning the battle against customer resistance with robust technology

Delivering an encrypted copy of each statement directly to the customer’s email inbox is the most applicable solution in the market today. Regardless of what happens online, customers can print or save (in an encrypted format) a complete history of their relationship with their bank or biller. With its additional security features, such as including an authentication section at the top of emails and email personalization, the customer’s fears of phishing are alleviated. Customers can also decrypt, view and save documents offline, which reduces security threats of malware and spyware.

Distributing your billing / statement information to email inboxes, rather than consolidating all history and activity in one place, may serve to dilute the threat of criminals looking to hack your eBilling portal. Just as important, is winning the battle against customer resistance to going paperless, especially in the wake of increasing concern over data breaches.

Don’t let other companies’ data breaches reduce your eStatement adoption

The answer to customer’s fears of losing control over their documents is to “deliver” a tangible electronic copy of everything you send to your customers today in a more secure format than paper mail or online presentment – an encrypted attachment to an email.

Push the documents to your customers and all resistance will crumble.

Saving trees – killing the Post Office

Canada Post employees recently went on strike – after two weeks and with no end in sight, companies in Canada are using this opportunity to migrate customers to eBilling at a rapid rate. Although the driver here is actually hard cost savings, the outcome is that there will be even less paper bills and statements and hence less revenue for Canada Post, resulting in more cut-backs and downsizing. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

The centuries old postal system is under significant threat – but is that our problem?

Death of an institution

In the last five years, the US Postal Service has seen its mail drop by 43.1 billion pieces. No business can survive such a radical drop in demand for its services and hope to continue business as usual.

In the UK there is constant talk about privatising the Royal Mail. In fact, this has been going on for years, with downstream access already doing the bulk sorting and distribution for thousands of businesses.

What the post office always had was a monopoly on the last mile. No-one else wanted to have the headache of employing feet on the street, but the internet has created an entirely new delivery mechanism that is fast replacing traditional print and post. Of course, the consequence of this is the constantly declining volumes of corporate mail and the reality of a shrinking business model.

Every business knows that when faced with declining revenues, you need to reduce costs and cut your cloth accordingly. I guess the unions (in the case of Canada Post) and thousands of people involved in post office business models make this a difficult process.

Luddite behaviour

Unionised post office workers are the 21st century equivalent of the Luddites; their strikes are the modern day equivalent of destroying the mechanised looms that put them out of work. However, as with the Industrial revolution, there is a fundamental change afoot. Any industrial action by post office workers plays into the hands of eBilling companies and once the ‘genie is out of the bottle’, it’s hard to get it back in again - very few people go back to paper once they move to eBilling.

Post Offices around the world are reviewing their business models (we see their consultants on our website every week.) Bills and statements, once the mainstay of postal volumes, are rapidly moving to electronic delivery. For the post office to reinvent itself, it will need to embrace the connected world we now live in. It’s getting some help from ecommerce - home delivery of purchases (a possible future headline - “Amazon saves the post office”?) But is that enough?

Spare a thought for the postman

When considering eBilling, we weigh up environmental and costs savings vs. paper production and cost of distribution. The fact that the post office is now a shrinking business model is proof that many more businesses are realising the benefits and ROI associated with eBilling and are actively migrating customers from paper to electronic documents.

So while you enjoy the eBilling benefits of instant delivery, one-click payment, soft copy storage, interactive sorting and graphing and consequently saving a few trees, spare a thought for your local postman, his job is under threat. But as the cliché goes – it’s not personal, it’s just business.

Is it time to end Usernames & Passwords forever?

Do you hate usernames and passwords as much as your customers do?

Choosing and remembering multiple usernames and passwords for eBilling and self serve portals is a poor customer experience and incredibly expensive for billers. It is furthermore one of the most significant barriers to paper suppression.

Uniquely chosen usernames and passwords are intended to make websites secure, but instead, billers are simply passing the responsibility of security onto their users. In many instances, this is accompanied by predatory terms and conditions (read this blog post: Check the small print, you assume all the risk)

In truth, consumers do an extremely poor job of securing their access:

• One in ten still regularly use the word 'password'
• One in four use their mother's maiden name
• 15% use a pet's name and 10% a child's name
• Only 3% use a random password
• 30% of users have forgotten their password

Source: TNS/OneVu 2007

Customers just don't want it!

Customers are constantly telling us that the username and password process is not desirable. The December 2010, InfoTrends eBilling Report showed that 61% of consumers surveyed said that remembering multiple unique usernames and passwords remains a barrier to paperless adoption.

Not convenient for billers either

One of the biggest complaints from billers utilizing self-serve portals is the thousands of phone calls to their call centres every month from customers who have forgotten their login details. Each call costs the biller an average of $3.50 to $8.00. Online self service was meant to be cheaper and more convenient. Unfortunately in many cases it is neither. This is particularly so in circumstances where the customer rarely visits the biller's portal. This includes utilities, insurance companies and telecommunication service providers.

To date, the primary reason for customers visiting a biller's website was to make a payment. With the trend moving away from biller direct to internet banking bill pay, even this reason is dissipating.

Does eBilling have to come at the cost of customer convenience?

If username and password authentication is a poor customer experience, expensive for the biller, as well as a security risk; then how does one protect sensitive customer information and deliver on convenience, while moving to a paperless eBilling solution? Is there a way to provide an eBilling solution that is secure, cost efficient and most of all – convenient enough for the customer to turn off paper?

While it is in the interest of the biller to pull customers to their website in order to cross-sell and up-sell other goods and services, inconveniencing the customer in the process seems paradoxical.

If billers could truly deliver the bill electronically (as opposed to creating a 'fetch' scenario), they would also have a way to market to that consumer intelligently, and most importantly, in a cost effective way that is actually more convenient for the consumer.

Should additional self-service be available on the biller's website, then you can always drive them there after satisfying the primary purpose of bill delivery.

Creating the best possible customer experience:

1. Gain consent from the customer to go paperless without requiring a website registration.

2. Eliminate website registration (the number one barrier to paper suppression) by auto registering the customer at your self-serve portal and let them know that you have done so.

3. Utilize two to three simple questions to authenticate their portal access (think about when you called your bank recently, chances are they asked you 3 to 4 simple questions about yourself that only you could logically know the answers to).

4. Only ask them to choose a username and password if they are going to access the website very regularly and the question process in point 3 above is too lengthy for daily use.

For example: If I'm only visiting my insurer's website a few times a year, then asking me 2/3 simple questions is far more convenient than asking me to remember a username and password I chose 6 months ago. If I am accessing my Internet Banking more than once a week, then of course in this instance a username and password is the more convenient option.

Customers will turn off paper as long as it's convenient to do so, and while redundant authentication processes remain, eBilling adoption just won't happen.

Let's end consumer frustration and expensive customer care phone calls once and for all.

Email is very much alive and kicking

In the wake of social media, instant messaging and any other alternate and efficient means of communicating - one would surmise that email must be taking a back seat. However, many of these new technologies rely heavily on email for registration and notifications relating to their service.

While Facebook has 500 million active users, email makes Facebook look like a poor cousin in comparison. With no technology currently available to replace the messaging and notification capability of email, I see many more fruitful years of content filled emails ahead.

Some points to consider

Yes, it is true that around 80% of all email sent worldwide is SPAM, but how much of that SPAM actually reaches a user's inbox? SPAM filters have become incredibly sophisticated. But it's important to keep in mind that SPAM won't go away if people stop using email, it is channel agnostic and will merely follow people to their next choice of messaging channel (and in many cases, it already has.)

Yes, email is an old technology but email is not static - there are regular advancements in this space (Google's priority inbox, is one of the latest examples.) However, email must continue to innovate to keep pace with additional digital communication channels and I am confident it will.

Email is not dying

Recent stats in a blog published by Royal Pingdom go even further to prove that email is far from dead. Impressive numbers of email users of the world's largest three webmail services include Yahoo (Yahoo Mail) with 340 million users and Microsoft (Hotmail) with 450 million users (user numbers as per Doubleclick ad planner)

The statistics become even more compelling when coupled with information on how these services contribute to overall website traffic to their respective domains.

Gmail gets 23% of the traffic to Google.com.
Hotmail gets 39% of the traffic to Live.com.
Yahoo Mail gets 20% of the traffic to Yahoo.com.

What stands out is how large these percentages are in terms of total traffic to each domain. For Google and Microsoft, webmail traffic accounts for the second highest source in domain traffic and Yahoo Mail contributes more traffic to Yahoo.com than any other single contributor.

If any of these companies chose to discontinue their webmail services, they would suffer financial devastation through the loss of advertising revenue and valuable user behaviour statistics. They would also lose the ability to influence user behaviour through additional offerings such as Google Buzz.

Email is still the people's choice

Where does this bring us? Email is still very much alive and kicking! Choice has become the order of the day. People can choose their preferred medium of communication and while it doesn't pretend to be the best at everything, email delivers on many functions where alternatives just don't quite make the grade yet.

How is email working for you?

Nicola Els
striata.com

Postal costs rise – eBilling costs fall

The Royal Mail has implemented another increase in postal costs in the UK. Increases between 10% and 13% were applied from 4 April 2011. I say “another” because the costs of postage seem to rise every year, generally far in excess of inflation. It stands to reason that the use of eBilling as an alternative to paper is on the rise and as more and more billers and customers move to eBilling, these costs are dropping.

Both models are volume dependent and include both fixed and variable costs. As the volumes increase or decrease, the average costs adjust. The good news for eBilling is that the volumes are going up (and consequently costs down), but the bad news for postage is that the postal infrastructure costs are being spread over fewer statements and bills and hence costs have to rise.

eBilling – the Tipping Point

There has been talk of a “tipping point” for eBilling where there is a significant increase in adoption rates. The tipping point should not be confused with the milestone of the majority of bills being delivered electronically (i.e. > 50%). The tipping point may be reached before or after this event, but it all depends on the eBilling model adopted.

In 2009 we said that billers following the portal (pull) model could expect roughly 5% growth per year, whilst email (push) billers could expect growth rates of 10% - 15%. These stats have proven accurate each year.

We have also said that portals and email complement one another – in fact we believe that there will always be 3 ways to deliver bills: Print, Pull and Push.

It’s a matter of choice and customer convenience

Some customers will never change – and you will need to print their bills until they are no longer customers.

Some customers like the idea of being pulled back to a portal where they can fetch their bills as and when they want to.

But most customers just need to see the amount due and when they have to pay by; and pushing an email bill to them is perfect solution.

We are seeing a significant rise in the number of calls from billers that implemented a portal and are now looking to add Push email billing to the delivery mix to enhance their paperless adoption rates.

Email is also a very simple way of making bills accessible on a mobile device, without the additional costs of redeveloping a portal to render correctly on different mobile phones (not to mention iPads and tablets).

Do any of these statements apply to you?

• We can’t afford a 10% increase in our statement costs.
• I’m worried about achieving our paperless adoption targets this year.
• We offer paperless billing but our customers aren’t signing up.
• We’re having to increase our marketing spend to get customers to move off paper.
• I’m not sure how we are going to meet our cost reduction budgets next year.

Give us a call and ask us to assist you with saving costs, reducing paper and migrating customers to paperless billing and make sure that the only one to feel the effects of the postal increase is the Post Office!

Michael Wright
striata.com

When it comes to eBilling, are you just ticking the box or making it work commercially?

As I travel around Asia talking to companies about eBilling and looking at what eBilling solutions have already been implemented, it strikes me that the whole eBilling business is mired in misleading projections and statistics, and in many cases, apathy. Surely this is a key reason why so few people actually utilize eBilling, and why so few companies actually save money when implementing it. "In what ways?" I hear you ask! Well, I'll explain…

Let's start off with what the end-customer – the recipient – is told. Generally eBilling is sold to the end-customer as being environmentally friendly. In Asia we have GreenBills, GreenPost and other such names for electronic bills and statements, yet we know that the real reason companies implement eBilling is cost-saving. I'm not suggesting that we stop pushing the environmental aspect, but let's be honest, it's efficiency that's driving the change too.

Convenience and ease of use drives customer adoption

People appreciate efficiency, and if that efficiency actually contributes to the customer experience; the ease of receiving, opening, filing, printing (if necessary) and paying the eBill, it's going to be popular. But dressing up an inconvenient, time-consuming "log in to our portal and search for this month's bill" solution, as an environmental initiative isn't going to work for any except the greenest of customers – the rest will stick with paper, thank you very much!

eBilling portals don't drive paper turn-off – email billing does

How about the eBilling portals themselves – both corporate and consolidator portals? Just how many customers have signed up for the service? Or more importantly, how many paper bills have been turned-off? You could argue that this is commercially sensitive information and can't be divulged, but is that really the case? Contrary to this, I can quote 68% paper turn-off for Wesbank eStatements in South Africa, or 12% turn-off in 10 months for City of Tallahassee Utilities in North America - clients of Striata that aren't shy about telling the world how eBilling has helped them realize their paper turn off targets. Occasionally analyst reports come out with figures that show average eBill portal adoption rates of 2-3% per year, which maybe explains why some don't quote hard figures…

Choose an eBilling solution that works for you and your customers

And finally there is internal reporting and target-setting within the companies themselves. I've spoken with consultants working on a government eBilling initiative with a target of 5% paper turn-off in 3 years. Another example is a major utility that was looking for 2-3% paper turn-off per year. These are figures that they're hoping for – not necessarily figures that they'll reach! Hey, some people are probably getting bonuses for achieving adoption rates that would result in us having strong words with our paperless adoption consultants!

CFO's are being misled into believing that 2% or 3% adoption is good and all that can be expected, even though the business case just won't add up with figures like that. Why would they do this? I think it's partly due to my last observation: apathy.

In many cases, it seems that eBilling is implemented because "everyone else" is doing it, and it's more a case of ticking the box rather than actually trying to make it work commercially. Once the solution is implemented, it's often left to stagnate. Adoption is rarely the responsibility of one person – it's more likely a small part of the Marketing department's remit and so the savings never accrue. There's a hope that there will be a return on the investment, but not really an expectation.

What can be done about this? Doing some proper research on eBilling before deciding on what solution to implement is a good start. Establish what paper turn-off rates can be expected? Understand what has worked well in similar companies or what you need to do differently to be successful? Set tough but achievable adoption targets and make someone responsible for hitting them. Look to provide an eBilling service that your end-customers will want to use, not feel forced to use. Don't play at eBilling – work at it!

Want to know what eBilling adoption rates you can really expect?

Keith Russell
striata.com

It's an integrated messaging world

Having been in email marketing for the better part of 10 years, I believe in the medium, so why then do I find myself unsubscribing from countless newsletters that offered so much value in the past?

The answer: Those same companies post their newsletter articles on their Twitter feed either at the same time or worse – a few days before the newsletter is distributed. By the time that newsletter arrives in my inbox, it's old news. I've most likely already read and tweeted any snippets or articles of interest that appear in that email.

So where's the value in the email newsletter?

Email still has a stronghold in the notifications market, because aside from a web page, it is your repository for all purchase confirmations, welcome notices, eStatements… to name a few.

But in the marketing space the value needs to be about exclusivity, and personalisation, otherwise customers just won't sign up, open and click rates will continue to decline and unsubscribes will increase.

Email subscribers want to receive exclusive deals based on their interests. What are they getting in that email that they can't get anywhere else? And yes, pictures do sell compared to 140 characters on Twitter, but are you providing the right content to keep email subscribers glued to their screens when your email comes rushing in, along with 100 others?

Competing for share of eyeballs

It's not just other email marketing messages you're competing against. In a world where all messages come into one platform, like Rockmelt for example, message notifications look the same, whether they are for Facebook, Twitter or an email. So it's time to differentiate email content to ensure that the same message doesn't appear three times, just because they're a fan on Facebook, follow you on Twitter and subscribe to your email. You need to make them want to open that email with personalised and unique content.

Let's not forget that email doesn't stand alone in the messaging world, so social sharing links are really important on your marketing emails. If the content is relevant and targeted, those customers will want to share that information - spreading your message further. This is also a great opportunity to increase email sign ups by including a registration for email marketing on all landing pages that are likely to be shared on social networks. You can make it easy to share your email pearls of wisdom by creating 140 character pullouts that can be easily shared in other media.

Email – the evolving stalwart of messaging

The way we use email is constantly evolving, and so should email marketing evolve to match consumers' behaviour. Email is such a powerful medium when used correctly, which can achieve a far greater ROI than other messaging mediums. Think about how people read email and where they get information, then reinvent that email newsletter to provide the content that will make your newsletter stand out. And why? Because email newsletters work when they are strategically planned and the content is personalised and relevant.

Are you communicating with your customers regularly and effectively – Need more info? An eMarketing specialist is just a click away ..

Mia Papanicolaou
striata.com

Check the small print, you assume all the risk!

Have you ever wondered why customers resist signing up for eBilling and auto pay? Primarily they ask "What's in it for me?"

Assuring customers that it is safe to switch to paperless billing and payments should be a pre-requisite, surely? Apparently not, as I found out this week.

Do you read the small print or Terms & Conditions for every website before signing up to use their online services? You probably should.

When I tried to enroll at Verizon's online portal this week, I read through its Terms & Conditions and was stunned by what was there - especially coming from a $100 billion telecoms giant that (apparently) places so much emphasis on providing the best possible service to its 94 million customers.

Here are the Terms & Conditions that Verizon forces customers to agree to (copied word for word from their website):

"Online Billing
To the extent you utilize Verizon online services, you acknowledge and agree that Verizon makes no guarantee that communications or transactions conducted online will be absolutely secure. You further acknowledge and agree that there may be system failure that may limit your ability to use the online services. You agree to assume all risk and liability arising from your use of Verizon online services, including the risk of breach in the security of the communications or transactions you conduct with Verizon online. You understand and agree that Verizon online services are provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or otherwise."

And it gets better!

Even if you agree to these ridiculous terms, here's what you're up against when deciding whether or not to sign up for Automatic Bill Payment - which is by far their preferred method of receiving / taking payment from you.

Please carefully read the Terms and Conditions for the Automatic Bill Payment (ABP) option:
By enrolling in, using, or paying for Verizon service by ABP, you agree to these terms and conditions:
4.1. I understand and agree that Verizon is not liable for erroneous bill statements or incorrect debits/charges.
4.2. If a billing error occurs, Verizon is responsible for correcting, if and when, I notify Verizon of the error.

Then I got over-charged…

To make matters worse, Verizon did actually make a mistake on my account, to the tune of a $250 over-charge. Having spoken to no less than 4 different call center agents, I was told the only way its "billing system" could resolve the issue, was for me to pay the full amount, including its error and then have Verizon credit my account.

The point of this blog post is not to highlight Verizon's shortcomings, nor the lengths its lawyers have gone to in order to protect the company from lawsuits, but it does raise one incredibly important question….

How difficult are you really making it for customers to go paperless?

Speak to a Striata Adoption Expert today to find out the right way to transition customers from paper mail.

Barrie Arnold
striata.com

eBilling greenwashing is hogwash

eBilling is "green" – everyone knows this. It's a truism so obvious and self-evident that it is hardly worth mentioning. So, for eBilling to be attacked as 'greenwashing' seems disingenuous to say the least, especially coming from a lobbyist bought and paid for by the very industry suffering from eBilling's success.

Recently "Two Sides" (a lobbying initiative by companies in forestry, pulp, paper, inks and chemicals, pre press, press, finishing, publishing and printing) started beating their drum about the "Greenwashing of eBilling". They maintain that in the UK 45% of major banks, 70% of telecoms, and 30% of utilities risk greenwash sanctions for claiming that eBilling was "green" without verifiable proof.ⁱ

The issue that upsets them so much is that the banks, telcos and utilities are enjoying substantial cost reductions from moving to electronic billing and therefore can't claim to be doing it for altruistic environmental reasons like saving the planet and lowering Co2 emissions.

And they are particularly upset because their bankrollers are seeing revenue decline as customers choose to "Go Green" by going paperless. It seems to be a fairly self serving argument – but I guess that's their job.

It is interesting that Two Sides are not disputing that eBilling is more cost effective – but they are harping on the technicalities that the organisations making the claims have not done the "verifiable research" to back-up the "green" claims and therefore could be "contravening the latest CAP code (Committee for Advertising Practice) which states that environmental "claims must be supported by a high level of substantiation".ⁱⁱ

Of course to some people it may not seem that obvious that an email is going to result in less pollutants than a piece of paper. There are no trees to cut down, no effluent waste water and no solid waste in the production of emails.

Two Sides point out that the data centres are needed to host and run the eBilling processes consume vast amounts of power but interestingly enough they don't provide any verifiable research to back this up. Common sense would dictate that the power consumption is not a significant factor in comparing the "green" credentials of eBilling vs. paper & print as similar servers would be used in both process, except in the case of eBilling there are no massive printers to run and no network of delivery trucks to distribute the documents – eBilling uses a tiny piece of an existing network (the internet) and such a small proportion of the end users computer power as to be statistically negligible.

Two Sides goes onto say that "Print Media... being based upon a renewable and recyclable material, may be the sustainable way to communicate."

What a load of Hogwash!

Just because trees are a renewable resource doesn't mean that paper is a sustainable way to communicate. This is so self-serving it stinks more than the sulphuric smell that pervades pulping plants.ⁱⁱⁱ

In its submission to the European Commission on Electronic Invoicing, Two Sides urged the Commission "to recognise the economic benefits derived from the paper, printing and postal... as thousands of jobs and livelihoods are wholly or partly dependent on the wider paper, printing and postal industries", i.e. please don't eat our lunch.

Unfortunately for Two Sides, the cat is well and truly out the bag on this one. eBilling saves costs as it turns off paper. Market forces will dictate that businesses drive down costs and eBilling is a prime opportunity to do that. If this means that the bankrollers of Two Sides feel the pinch – that's just normal business – there's no use whining about it.

As for the 'verifiable research' you only have to visit www.papercalculator.org to work out the environmental benefits from switching from paper to email. In addition, here are a few links that provide more information and proof that paper is a messy business:

• Paper recycling: exposing the myths
• Energy Efficiency for the Pulp and Paper Industry
• Environmental impacts of the paper industry
• Water pollution as a result of paper and pulping production

---

ⁱ http://www.twosides.info
ⁱⁱ http://www.cap.org.uk
ⁱⁱⁱ http://www.rfu.org

What happens when companies don't invest in Direct Customer Communications?

I would love to be a fly on the wall when marketing departments are thrashing out plans for their marketing campaigns at the beginning of the new financial year.

I am willing to take a bet that in general, direct digital communications - considered the ginger-headed step children of marketing disciplines - receive mere scraps of the budget pie, whilst the glamorous fat cat traditional and significantly more expensive media channels take the lion's share. This translates into a minimal requirement for a comprehensive digital communication strategy, as there is relatively little money left to allocate to it. And this is where it all goes wrong.

I do admit however that this strategy is slowly changing, as social media is gradually being included into marketing strategies, but frankly it is not happening fast enough.

To illustrate my point…

I believe most companies' marketing strategies look something like this:

A couple of big campaigns are planned for the year. The objective: drive as much brand recognition as possible using a number of marketing channels; TV, Radio, Print, Trade Shows, PR, Internet Ad spend and perhaps throwing in an Email Campaign. No direct communication plan. No social media strategy.

The problem…

If one had to measure the effectiveness of these campaigns over time, it will be noted that the brand recognition curve peaks midway through the campaign and then decreases rapidly into that "quiet" period in between campaigns, until a new campaign kicks in again. Assuming that brand recognition translates into sales, this does not deliver a constant flow of sales. A fairly simple analogy, but I think you get the point.

The solution…

Marketing strategies should look like this:

This translates into the following:

• Spread the budget across slightly smaller campaigns and constant direct communication
• Effectively reduce specific campaign budget spend, whilst shifting resources to a direct customer lifecycle communication programme that is targeted, relevant and cost effective throughout the entire year and not just once off 'spray and pray' blasts
• Invest in a social media programme to monitor conversations in the social space, and drive a loyal brand following

The cost of delivering direct digital communications programmes is far less and arguably achieves a better ROI.

To sum it up - By reducing specific campaign budgets and allocating additional funds in a constant direct communications programme throughout the year, while supporting it with a social media strategy, you mitigate the "quiet" periods and drive the brand recognition curve higher.

Always communicating. Always top of mind.

Assuming again that brand recognition translates into sales, to ensure consistency, use direct communications and social media constantly throughout the year, in conjunction with smaller more targeted campaigns. This is a far better marketing strategy.

For more tips on how to harness the power of digital communications, chat to an eMarketing Specialist.

Part III: Why & how email delivery is succeeding, where eBill Consolidators are failing:

My first two blog posts on this subject dealt with why consolidators here in the US will never work. In today's post, I cover the comparison between eBill / eStatement consolidators and true electronic delivery solutions:

There are five primary areas where email delivery of bills and statements succeeds, where consolidators have and will continue to fail.

1. Biller and consumer critical mass:

Why consolidators fail: To benefit consumers; consolidators should have the majority of a customer's bills in a central location. Due to the size of the US biller market this is simply impossible.To date, even mature consolidators that have been building a base for several years, have failed to exceed 20% of the average household's bills. The new entrants to this segment are yet to realize the futility of this endeavor.

On the flip side however, biller's won't subscribe to a service without a significant percentage of their consumers already enrolled. A true chicken and egg scenario.

Why email delivery succeeds: As the bill is delivered directly into the customer's inbox, it makes no difference whether it is one email bill or several a month. Just like in the physical mail scenario, getting one bill or many is just as convenient for both biller and recipient. Most importantly, it gives each and every biller the ability to deliver bills to their customers, without the need for a location to gather a critical mass of consumers.

2. Registration / enrollment:

Why consolidators fail: A recent survey conducted by InfoTrends showed that of the 1,042 consumers surveyed, 61% said that remembering multiple unique usernames & passwords remains a significant barrier to paperless adoption. Convincing the majority of consumers to register on biller's websites has proven to be an insurmountable marketing feat. For the consolidator however, it's even worse, as the customer has to have many pieces of information at hand for each biller at that location. Add to this the fact that consumers do not want another mailbox nor to have to choose and remember yet another username and password.

Why email delivery succeeds: Quite simple - there is no registration process. The bill arrives in the customer's existing email inbox and is opened using a secure 'shared secret' (not a password, rather personal details known to the biller and the recipient). There is no need to choose or remember anything. There are also no marketing dollars required to drive the customer to sign up for anything.

3. Paper suppression:

Why consolidators fail: For a consolidator website to be considered successful at paper suppression by any biller, they will need to achieve suppression rates in excess of 10% per year, per biller. Currently statistics show that less than 5% of consumers enroll at consolidator websites and 50% of those still don't go paperless - the math cannot hope to add up.

Why email delivery succeeds: By delivering the bill or statement as a securely encrypted email attachment, the recipient can opt to go paperless with just one click - no form to complete, no website to visit, no username & password to complete, in fact, nothing to do at all except simply receive an email.

4. Bill stuffers / electronic marketing:

Why consolidators fail: Due to the website nature of viewing bills at a consolidator, within a multi-biller environment and along with the fact that the biller does not have any ownership of the viewing real estate, marketing to consumers at consolidator websites is a considerable challenge, if offered at all. There is certainly no advanced personalization possible.

Why email delivery succeeds: It is automated and extremely cost effective to insert and overlay marketing messages into the body of an email, the white space of the bill and entire pages inserted into the secure attachment. Furthermore, this can be personalized down to the individual recipient, resulting in a bill marketing tool that is significantly more powerful than the paper bill, the biller's own website and definitely any consolidator.

5. Mobile:

Why consolidators fail: Navigating a mobile website or downloading an app is just inconvenient, a poor user experience and requires pre-registration. In addition, paying through a mobile website is an even worse experience than just viewing it. (To date no consolidators have offered a mobile option, but we believe that in 2011 there will be a first attempt.)

Why email delivery succeeds: An email attachment can be opened on any email capable device, without the need for the recipient to do anything. In addition, the same email will be waiting on the recipient's computer for viewing later. Payment can be initiated with just a single click.

And finally it is relevant to point out that where new consolidator entrants are in start-up / concept stage, secure electronic document delivery via email has been successful in 14 countries (including the USA) for 12 years, for more than 250 large Billers and Financial Institutions, including 3 of the top 10 banks).

When considering your paper suppression strategy, do you go with a new idea that has never worked before, but is at best a 'nice' idea, or do you chose a direction with a decade of referencable, proven success stories?

Garin Toren
striata.com

Don't forget the basics when testing email campaigns

Email marketing is constantly evolving and a focus for many companies is split testing to ensure relevance and understanding of customer behaviour. However, it's easy to forget the basics and that's when mistakes creep in.

I have received numerous marketing and notification emails in the past few weeks which have the basics wrong: referring to me by my surname rather than first name (no title), reply not working and an unsubscribe process that requires multiple clicks to remove me from the list.

There is basic testing that needs to be carried out on every email campaign before distribution. If you have automated campaigns going out, test them every 6 months, even if they were correct when you launched them. Things change and anything can affect your campaign.

So what are the basics?

An email is the sum of its parts. You need to test every one of those parts. Don't assume that any part of the email works if you haven't tested it.

Here are a few quick tips:

General

• Check your email in the major browsers. Different browsers will render the email differently, so don't assume that because you checked the email in Hotmail it will look the same for everyone. Check that same Hotmail email in Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari, etc. as each of these may render the email differently.
• Check your email in the major email clients. HTML renders differently in different email clients. Where it looks perfect in Outlook for example, the text that should be black is purple in Gmail, so check your email in every email client possible.
• Remember that more and more people read these emails on the go, so test how the email looks on mobile devices and how easy it is to read, click and navigate through it.
• When last did you test the reply? Finger trouble when setting up the campaign could mean that your reply address isn't working. This is damaging to your brand and will impact on deliverability.
• The most basic, but far too often forgotten test, is to check your grammar and spelling.

Data

• Don't lose your customer at the salutation. Check that your personalisation and customisation match what is in your database. Always check random customer email samples against the original data.
• Is your unsubscribe working? All too often this link goes unchecked and if it's not working, not only are you contravening a few laws across various countries, you're damaging your brand.

Images

• Make sure your image sizes are specified. If they aren't, older versions of Outlook will stretch the images - forcing recipients to scroll left and right as well as up and down unless they download them. Newer versions of Outlook make the images 1 pixel high and wide before download.
• Have you included alternative text behind the images? A recipient should understand the email and see all the call to action buttons without having to download the images.

Landing pages

• Does your customisation and personalisation pull through to the online version? If you're making the effort to be relevant and customise communications, then ensure that the online version mimics the email.
• Make sure that the online version link does not appear on the online version.
• If you're logged into Skype, telephone numbers will be converted to a specific style with a flag, which could break the template so check your email and the online version whilst being logged into Skype.
• Are your landing pages named correctly? They should have the name of the campaign or the subject line.

Testing email campaigns is vital to ensure their success and to preserve the reputation of your brand, so ensure you are testing thoroughly before distribution. If you still aren't sure whether or not you are covering all the basics, be sure to chat to an eMarketing specialist…

Mia Papanicolaou
striata.com

Another day, another phishing scam

I've seen hundreds of phishing emails over the past couple years. Some brilliantly written; others that wouldn't fool the clichéd blonde in a bar.

The good ones can be tricky to recognize: they seem to come from a valid service provider, are exact replicas of a real communication, and I reluctantly admit, are rather professionally done.

The bad ones are just that: BAD - Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, broken images, inconsistent messages. I even received one branded as if from Bank A, but with a call to action for Bank B. Very confusing, and hardly likely to dupe anyone.

But yet these scams must have some level of success or the crooks would hang up their HTML and look elsewhere for easy targets.

The problem is that so many Internet users are just that: easy targets. Some believe that because they don't understand "technology", they can't arm themselves against digital-media fraud. In reality, many of the techniques used to recognize a phishing attempt, have more to do with common sense, than with being an Internet super-user.

The only way to avoid being a victim of phishing is to educate yourself.

How can you tell if an email is fraudulent?

• Fraudsters don’t know who you are. 99.9% of email phishing is “spray and pray”, so the email is actually not directed at you personally. They happen to have your email address, but they have no other personal information about you. Don’t respond or interact with any email which is not addressed to you personally in the body of the email.
• Fraudsters want your personal information. The purpose of a phishing email is to get information from you that enables access to your money. A phishing email will ask for your personal security information, such as your ATM pin, or your credit card number and pin. Banks will never send an email requesting your ATM or card pin. Any communication that asks you for your internet banking login or password, or anything to do with an ATM is a scam.
• Fraudsters pray on ignorance. A phishing email is designed to look real, but there are always ways to recognize fraud. Online commerce, internet banking, email statements are all the way of the future. Which means that, unfortunately, scams will also be part of our future online experience. Get informed. Don’t be a passive Internet user.

Use common sense.

If the content of an email seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files, regardless of who sent them. Don’t email your personal, financial or password information, EVER.

Stay on top of announcements from your Bank about their email communication and Internet Banking policies. Banks regularly update their fraud notices, as well as provide fraud detection software and tips on how to avoid becoming a victim.

If you do receive a suspicious email, take the time to report it to your Bank’s fraud division – all relevant information in this regard, as well as contact details should be on your Bank’s website.

Alison Treadaway
striata.com

eBilling horror stories! Do you have one?

An interesting story appeared in my Google Alerts a little while ago regarding an eBilling problem in Texas. What made it interesting to me was that the company involved – a water utility – had done many good things with regards to their eBilling, but fell at the last hurdle and ended up disconnecting an innocent customer. Not good for public relations! The full story is here.

In brief, when eBilling was introduced the utility sent out paper and eBills to the customer for a few months, before defaulting her to eBilling. In general, this process improves the eBilling adoption rate dramatically - reducing paper and postage costs and is good practice – as long as you know the customer is receiving the eBills! It turns out that this particular customer's email address was 2 years out of date, and she never received any eBill or notice that she was being defaulted to eBilling. To make matters worse, the utility noticed that the eBills weren't being paid and so occasionally sent out paper bills to "catch up", which were received and paid on time. But they then continued with eBilling until they disconnected her…

eBilling is not just about sending electronic bills…

Clearly whilst the eBilling platform was probably successfully sending out eBills, the required read-receipt and delivery reporting wasn't in place. Clearly the processes dealing with exceptions weren't water-tight.

In a similar story but much closer to home; my friend got a call from her bank today telling her that payments toward her new credit-card – issued in September – had never been received and over US$400 in late fees was now due. It turns out that she thought she'd set up a direct debit payment (and hadn't – so that's her fault), but had also signed up for eStatements. These eStatements necessitated following a link back to a website and a log in to view the statement, and she'd just never bothered to do so as it was too much trouble (and hey, it was being paid automatically anyway, wasn't it…?) Did the bank not know she'd never viewed an eStatement? Should alarm bells not have started ringing after the first credit-card bill wasn't paid rather than 4 months later? Seems not!

The poor water customer in Texas had to pay a substantial reconnection fee but thankfully for my friend, her late fees were waived. However in both instances the customer ended up inconvenienced, disgruntled and dissatisfied with the electronic billing process.

Both of these stories show how the delivery of an eBill is only the start of the eBilling process, not the end of it! Convenience is critical to ensure eBills or eStatements are actually viewed. Monitoring of delivery and read-receipts is required, as is having automated processes set up to deal with issues. An eBill bounces? Then automatically send the customer an SMS… No reply to that? Then send a paper bill and get the call-centre to follow-up with the customer. And before eBilling begins, the adoption process has to be fail-safe but optimized to ensure the highest possible paper suppression rates.

Is it all starting to sound a bit more complicated than just attaching a PDF bill to an email? Then speak to the experts who have been doing it for 10 years…

Keith Russell
www.striata.com

Do you have what your customers want…. Mobile eBilling?

I can't think of any other consumer technology news that has been more eagerly anticipated in the US recently, than Verizon announcing that they will be introducing the iPhone in February 2011. While one analyst report estimates that 25 million Verizon iPhones could be activated in 2011, Verizon Wireless is conservatively predicting 11 million new iPhone users this year. On a global scale, the introduction of the CDMA version of the iPhone would open up approximately 550 million potential new customers (134 million in India alone), according to the CDMA Development Group. A massive gauntlet has just been thrown down to developers of Android devices as well.

The ramifications for all of this on eBilling are HUGE!

Whether you're an avid smartphone user (like me), an occasional mobile internet user, or someone who only uses their phone for calls and SMS text messages, the allure of the smartphone is undeniable. Opening the floodgates to the web and more importantly, email (by far the most used consumer technology application) means that your customers who, today receive paper bills, will be far more accessible.

Mobile eBilling and the World Wide Web

But wait… is your website configured and optimized for mobile users? Or will they just see a very small, unreadable version of their eBill? As companies desperately try to convert their customers to paperless communications in a bid to reduce costs, are they paying enough attention to how consumers connect to the web?

Most banks and billers have built their portals without this in mind. Have you ever tried to log-in and view / pay a bill from your phone? The whole experience is not for the technology or security averse, especially when the same exercise usually involves 10 steps and many mouse-clicks to complete on your regular computer screen.

I'm not suggesting for a second that the personal computer is becoming redundant, but isn't the whole point of being able to check emails and connect to the net from the palm of your hand, intended to make your life more efficient? So that you have more time for the things you want to do (Unfortunately paying bills doesn't often fall into this category.)

Striata's new mobile one-click payment solution

How cool would it be if you could view a PDF of your bill right on your phone, and tap your screen to make an instant payment, then file the bill in an email folder, all in less than 60 seconds? Talk about convenience! (not to mention billers getting paid quicker).

This is exactly what Striata launched at FinovateEurope this week. Striata's new mobile one-click payment solution is an industry first, enabling bill recipients to see how much is owed and conveniently make an instant one-click payment directly from any internet enabled mobile device. More good news: it doesn't require billers to spend anything on optimizing their portals for mobile users.

Striata continues to blaze a trail of innovation in paperless communication solutions. For more than a decade, we have had a very clear focus on providing both individual (B2C) and commercial (B2B) consumers with more convenience and ease of access to handling tasks that to date are predominately paper based.

Coincidentally, in a recent research report by InfoTrends entitled The Future of Electronic Bill Presentment & Payment in North America, 2010, companies surveyed said the most effective strategy for driving eBilling adoption was "marketing the convenience".

Isn't it time to put your money where your mouth is? Talk to a Striata specialist today about what enhancing customer convenience will do for your business.

Barrie Arnold
www.striata.com

The Digital (non) Dialogue

Today I received an email from a bank with the subject line: Private Bank: Your direct access to Top Management.

The email started off with: "At XX Private Bank, we're well aware that your time is your greatest luxury . . ." and ended off with the Regional Manager's personal details.

First problem: I'm no longer a customer of this particular Private Bank, and haven't been for upward of a year (but that's for another rant . . . I mean blog post, entitled "Please manage your data").

Second problem: it was addressed to DEAR PRIVATE BANK CLIENT. Enough said.

Companies still treat email communication as a monologue

What horrified me the most was that the email came from a no-reply mailbox.

Frowning, I looked through the rest of my regular supplier communication, and guess what? There are still loads of companies that treat email communication as a monologue. Unbelievable!

This business of sending emails from a noreply@company.com address and actually advertising in the content that "this mailbox is not monitored", is just plain bad practice. Why do they think it's okay to push out email communication without a reply path? Is my time less important than theirs?

Companies reap the cost and efficiency benefits of sending emails to customers: transactional notifications, personalized documents, triggered communication – all cost much less to deliver electronically than a phone call or posted letter.

Why make it less than 100% convenient for the recipient to send back a reply?

Don't you want your customers to engage with you?

Your marketing department spends millions trying to get your customers to engage in a dialogue with your company. There's a whole team of people paid to find out what customers think. Yet communication that is guaranteed to be sent to customers, such as statements, invoices, transactional notifications, are often treated as monologues.

Not to mention the deliverability problems that come along with having "do not reply" in the email address or body copy. Have you tested your delivery rates on no-reply emails? You'll be shocked at how many don't get delivered or get pushed straight to junk mail folders.

Worship the dialogue

Appoint a team to take charge of managing responses to your outgoing electronic communication. A lot of what you get back might be rubbish, but can you really take the risk of missing the pearl of wisdom in a suggestion from a customer? Or worse, ignoring the desperately disgruntled customer who takes his comments into the public domain after receiving no reply from you?

Inbound message management doesn't require a massive call centre. All you need is a team of well trained agents using decent electronic messaging software that manages inbound communications in the same way as you manage inbound calls. There are applications smart enough to filter spam and bounce backs, and to route emails based on your customer service business rules. This is not rocket science.

You have to encourage the dialogue, nurture the conversation and value the feedback. And making it difficult for customers to engage with your company is just plain bad practice and a missed opportunity.

[This is an automated blog post. Please do not reply.]

Alison Treadaway
www.striata.com