Marketers often rely on open-and click rates for quick campaign performance evaluations. Yet these metrics have long been known to be inaccurate. We often believe that things on the internet improve over time. That is not the case with email metrics – they are getting less accurate. Why? Should you be worried and should we abandon these metrics altogether?

About the author: Jakub Olexa is Founder & CEO of Mailkit (Sponsor of the 2024 Email Marketing Automation Summit).

The good old times: accurate open rates and clicks

Opens and clicks, or to be more accurate open rates and click rates, have long been the most important metrics for all email marketers. A single number tells how well a campaign has been performing. A single number to judge the engagement by. The underlying interactions have been the go-to data for recipient targeting, marketing automation as well as list cleaning operations. No matter how inaccurate, there are many use cases for the interaction data.

Over the past couple of years, we have seen these KPIs growing until everything broke – Apple announced its Mail Privacy Protection (Apple MPP for short). That was the moment when open rates skyrocketed. Marketers could no longer trust their data.

But the problem started long before MPP – the steady growth of open rates was one of the symptoms.

For the longest time, the tracking of opens was considered as accurate as it could be. We knew about the inaccuracies caused by tracking images not being loaded, email clients blocking images for security reasons, etc. The overall consensus in the industry was that while inaccurate, the data represented real interactions and therefore could be trusted.

Open and click patterns didn’t add up

Unlike opens, clicks were considered highly accurate. Clicks could not be easily intercepted by email clients (as always, there are exceptions) and provided firm data. Over time, we have started to see more and more emails being opened and links clicked with patterns that did not add up. The opens and clicks occurred at extremely high speed – messages opened immediately after delivery, and multiple links from a single mail clicked in a single second. These were clearly “Non-human interactions”!

We had so many questions… Did Rossum’s Universal Robots* escape to conquer the world of email?! How do we stop them?! How do we make the analytics accurate again?

We soon found out that these Robots opening emails and clicking the links did not come to conquer the email. They came to protect it – from the evil Robots! (Oh yes, there is such a thing as evil Robots – spam, phishing and malware are often sent and controlled by these evil Robots). By opening the messages and following the links inside, they were able to identify phishing attacks and spam campaigns faster and better than before, protecting individual recipients.

The challenge here is twofold – on one hand you have the Non-Human opens which skew the open-rate metrics marketers heavily rely on. On the other hand you have the Non-Human clicks that drive traffic but also automations.

The common denominator: Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection

The industry was fairly quick to identify the most common denominator for Non-Human Opens – no surprise, it was Apple’s MPP. Our data shows that 99% of all Non-Human opens are attributed to Apple. More importantly, over 50% of all email opens in Europe were Non-Human at the end of 2023. The percentage is even higher in the US, where Apple products have larger market share.

While easy to detect, the industry response was not that straightforward. Although the technical understanding is in place, the business priorities are often quite different. Detecting and removing Non-Human opens from reports was not a priority for most platforms. The resulting drop in open-rates would put extra pressure on support staff and could scare away some customers. Businesswise there is only one argument to do the detection – data quality. An argument that is hard to translate to sales and therefore most platforms put this feature in the backlog.

Deciphering Non-Human Interactions

It’s safe to say that if you are an email marketer doing B2C in Europe and your platform doesn’t remove Non-Human interactions from their reports you can divide your open rates by 2. Before you do, check if your platform offers any detection of non-human interaction. If it does there is usually the option to hide/discount such interactions.

Non-Human clicks are a different beast though. These are performed by anti-spam filters, security vendors, etc. to identify abusive links. The impact of such scans vary a lot. In B2C space you can expect around 3-5% of all the clicks to be non-human. In B2B space we have encountered cases where 100% of clicks were caused by scanners. This is easily explained by the fact that each industry segment uses different anti-spam methods.

In B2C most mailboxes are operated by large freemail providers like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. These systems are built to identify clusters of messages (bulk mail) and scan only a sample group of the messages. Results of the checks on the sample group are then applied to the whole cluster of messages – be it 10 or 10 million messages. Only the links from the sample group will be followed for security check and only those will show up in the reports as clicked.

Anti-spam systems in the B2B space usually can’t reliably cluster messages as even the largest enterprises count their mailboxes in thousands. As a result each message has to be scanned individually. Each message being scanned means links in each message may be subject to being scanned for abusive content. Every link in every message is “clicked” before the message gets delivered to its recipient.

All of these clicks (but opens as well) may trigger automations. Automations that will result in more emails to be sent. This is where the detection becomes extremely complicated. Security scanners are working extra hard to stay undetected – not because they want to mess with click rates but because they need to. They must stay undetected to protect the recipient’s mailboxes. It’s not only about this one campaign, but all the future campaigns and automations.

The end goal: finding a balance of data quality

The goal for us as ESPs is to find the right balance of data quality. We can’t detect all non-human interactions but we should do our best, as these interactions not only affect the reports but also our customer’s costs. Data quality becomes a very strong business case.

Author

Jakub Olexa
Founder & CEO | Mailkit

If there is one marketing trend we can be sure will continue to dominate, it’s AI tools for content creation and distribution. Within one week of its launch on 30th November 2022, OpenAI’s Chat GPT crossed one million users, a trajectory that is only going in one direction.

This article is written by Maileon, sponsor of the DDMA Digital Analytics Summit 2024 on June 27th. Tickets available at shop.emas.nu. 

Regardless of whether you see this as a threat or an unprecedented opportunity, AI-powered tools are here to stay. In fact, a recent survey from Contentoo found that over half (53%) of content marketers are already using or testing AI. To stay ahead of the game, marketers must get a good understanding of the current capabilities and use them to their advantage.  and keep their finger firmly on the pulse.

This article will explore the benefits of using AI in email marketing and when it should be avoided. We’ll also reveal some dos and don’ts of using AI in your marketing processes.

The benefits of using AI in email marketing

AI can be used in email marketing to craft killer headlines, create whole sections of body text, personalise messaging, optimise send times, and even inform strategy.  Here are some of the key benefits of using AI in email marketing.

• Saves time.I’m yet to meet a marketer who couldn’t do with more hours in the day. AI tools can take on multiple tasks, automate processes and reduce time-consuming jobs from hours to minutes.
• Improves copy quality.AI’s ever-expanding data sets help to identify and reduce errors and improve messaging. For example, AI-powered email marketing platforms can alert users to spelling and grammar mistakes or inconsistencies in tone of voice. It can even recommend ways to improve phrasing or construct clearer sentences.
• Improves deliverability. AI tools use historical data to ensure your emails are sent to people at the best time possible. They cleanse and segment data lists and optimise the content structure so they stand the best chance of being received and read.
• Want to improve your email deliverability with smart personalisation? Take a look at our platform today.
• Increases impact and engagement.Email marketing tools that are powered by AI can create personalised messaging at scale in a matter of seconds. Providing leads and customers with targeted content based on their purchase history or behaviours can mean the difference between conversion and losing your recipient’s interest.

When should you avoid AI in content creation?

Full disclosure – this article was produced without using AI. Or was it… 😉‘

AI is great for creating generalised content but you need to be careful that the automated content does not plagiarise, show bias, or include incorrect or unsupported information.

Furthermore, AI tools can’t produce original ideas (yet) so publishing AI-created content risks damaging your brand identity and alienating your audience if you don’t give them the rich, unique content they want and deserve.

Dos and don’ts of using AI in email marketing

As you know, AI in content creation and distribution is developing at a pretty mind-boggling rate. While busy marketers will want to take advantage of using these tools it’s important to be aware of the risks involved.

Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind so you can reap the rewards and avoid the pitfalls.

Dos

• Use AI to do the legwork. This could be finding topics, helping with research, or to write out generalised content in your email.
• Use AI-powered tools to find or even generate images that will perfectly communicate and emphasise your written content. Some tools can even analyse your audience profile and recommend visual content based on that data.
• Choose the best integrated email marketing AI tools to suit your business. Key functionalities to consider include:
  • The ability to set up SMS campaigns within automation flows.
  • Automated tool to proactively check and cleanse email lists to get rid of fakes, spam and inactive users. Find out how this works on our email address checker.
  • The ability to test email addresses before sending to optimise deliverability.
  • The ability to predict the best time to send your email on an individual subscriber level and automate/set send times accordingly.
  • Functionality to include automated personalised recommendations, such as product promotions from your webshop.

Psssst… if you want all these benefits, and much more, check out our solution today!

Don’ts

• Forget about the importance of unique content and the creative process. As mentioned above, AI content is machine generated and is not composed of original thoughts and ideas. Your brand’s standpoint and view of a subject can offer real value and must take precedence.
• Publish AI-created content without giving it a thorough review and fact check. This includes adapting the tone of voice so it reflects your brand style.
• Rely too much on automated processes. You still need to check in regularly to make sure the programming you set is running as it should, and that email distribution and content personalisation are optimised. It’s important to keep your automation goals in mind, as your campaigns evolve. Automation is a tool to help you and/or make it easier to reach your goal – not a goal in and of itself. You’ll always have to do some of the legwork yourself and it’s your knowledge and input that will help ensure you get the best results.
• Forget that the world of AI-powered content is constantly evolving. Review your processes and tools regularly to make sure you and your customers are getting the most benefit possible.

A recent survey from Contentoo found that over half (53%) of content marketers are already using or testing AI.

As with all developments in marketing technology, it is vital that you and your team don’t get left behind. Like it or not, AI is here to stay and, when used with the best interests of your brand and audience in mind, it can present some exciting opportunities.

As you know, the worlds of marketing and technology move fast and we simply don’t know what developments are around the corner. Our advice is to experiment with the tools and identify solutions that could help you save valuable time and enhance your processes. Maintain a healthy level of caution and remember that your customers chose your brand and are loyal to it because of the value you offer and the trust you are committed to building.

Make sure your brand voice is clear and present across all marketing channels, at all times. AI is a long way from replicating the personality and human touch that ensures you stand out from the crowd. Use it as a tool to enhance creativity and innovation rather than replace it altogether.

It’s almost time for this year’s edition of the EMAS Battle of the Agencies, but we’re taking a moment to look back at our winning case from last year. Curious about how we did this for Amnesty International? Read it here!

Happy Horizon is one of the sponsors for the 2024 Email Marketing Automation Summit in Circa Amsterdam. Tickets available here.

“It’s great to see that our taken risk has paid off well,” said our email expert Joep after the victory during the Battle of the Agencies. For charities like Amnesty International, donations are one of the most important sources of income. But enticing consumers to make a (long-term) donation is becoming increasingly challenging, partly due to the economic situation and reduced purchasing power. With a team of specialists, we proposed a well-thought-out yet daring idea. This idea earned us the victory at the Battle of the Agencies 2023.

The question from Amnesty International

Develop an email for the recruitment of as many members as possible, with the highest possible annual value. That was the task given by Amnesty International to the participants of the Battle of the Agencies 2023. Amnesty aims to recruit members who, extrapolated over 1 year, achieve the highest possible value.

“It’s really nice to see that our insights into non-profit and email marketing have been decisive in our victory.” – Joep van Ham

Our approach

We started with a brainstorm with non-profit specialists, email marketers, and content specialists. What do we already know about the target audience, and what do we know from similar campaigns? That brainstorm yielded relevant insights:

• Donors often think that their donation is just a drop in the ocean. Therefore, we need to emphasize that every donation counts;
• Emails to recruit members often have a high open rate. However, the click-through rate (CTR) is often low. If we want to achieve results, it is our task to make the email content different from previously sent emails;
• A relatively large number of recruitment emails are sent. We need to stand out.

With these insights in mind, we opted for a bold but, given the collected information, a very logical option. We chose a text email, written from the perspective of the director. With this, we wanted to stimulate urgency, reciprocity, and a sense of togetherness and claim authority. We did this by…

• Writing a personalized greeting (Can you help me, <name>?);
• Making the text as concise and powerful as possible;
• Adding the director’s signature;
• Placing text links above the fold;
• Making text links blue instead of black;
• Personalizing the text per segment;
• Testing extensively;
• Creating an English version of the email.

Additionally, we redesigned the landing page with our UX designer.

Result

The text email was live for 2 weeks and brought in 45 new members, with an average donation value of €77.58. The annual value – the campaign’s most important KPI – was even €3,491.00. That is over €500 higher than the second-place, and over €1000 higher than the third-place. Thanks to these results, we were named the winner of the Battle of the Agencies for the second year in a row.

Author

Joep van Ham
Teamlead E-mailmarketing | Happy Horizon

Ever since Google and Yahoo announced their new requirements for email senders, they have been the talk of the town. In addition, they also act a bit as a connector between worlds that otherwise are so far apart.

Because maybe for the first time, even email marketers begin to be concerned about email security. And you should be. The effectiveness of your email campaigns depends on it.

Although email security and email marketers both deal with the aspect of email management, their focuses are different. So we from DMARC Advisor are very excited that both worlds are now forced to communicate and work together, which is awesome news for the safety of the email ecosystem!

In this article, we’ll explore the email authentication protocols that are relevant to email marketers and explain why implementing them is essential for the success of your email marketing campaigns.

Email security

Email security protects email systems, networks, and data from various threats. These threats vary from malware, phishing attacks, spam, spoofing and other forms of unauthorised access. Each of these can seriously harm the brand reputation your organisation has worked so hard for to achieve. The main objectives are to ensure email communications’ confidentiality, integrity, and availability, safeguard sensitive information, and prevent data breaches.

Implementing encryption, spam filters, anti-virus software, and firewalls are measures to ensure the objectives above. But also — and this is where we are most excited about — email authentication protocols, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Email authentication protocols: How do they work?

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are open standards anyone can implement for free online. The image below provides a quick view of where to find each authentication method within an email.

The ‘From:’ domain, also known as the DMARC domain, is shown in an email. This is what everyone sees as being the ‘sender’. But this is exactly the domain that is used in phishing campaigns. So even though SPF and DKIM can pass a validation check, that doesn’t mean DMARC passes. The DMARC domain needs to be aligned with the SPF and DKIM domains to protect them from phishing or email abuse.

Sender Policy Framework – the mailman

SPF stands for Sender Policy Framework, and it allows the domain owner to specify which email servers are authorised to send emails on behalf of that domain.

The easiest way to explain SPF is that you are sending a package to your friend and have authorized DHL to deliver it. Any other postal service is not authorized.

DomainKeys Identified Mail – the postal stamp

DKIM stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail and works by adding a digital signature to the header of an email message.

The easiest way to explain DKIM is to add a seal to the package you sent. The seal should be intact upon arrival. If the seal is broken, you know the content can be tampered with.

Domain-based Messaging Authentication Reporting & Conformance

DMARC stands for Domain-based Messaging Authentication Reporting & Conformance. It is an open standard built on top of SPF and DKIM. DMARC allows a domain owner to specify how their emails should be handled if they fail SPF or DKIM checks + the alignment checks. The domain owner can have the email rejected, marked as spam, or delivered as usual.

Without DMARC, domain owners cannot see who or what emails are being sent on behalf of their domains. DMARC also provides feedback about how other email servers are handling their emails.

DMARC allows a domain owner to choose a policy that tells the email-receiving server what to do with an email if it fails the DMARC verification check. DMARC offers three policies to choose from, which are:

• p=none: monitors email flows. No further actions are taken.
• p=quarantine: handles email that doesn’t pass the DMARC check as spam and sends it to the spam folder.
• p=reject: blocks email that doesn’t pass the DMARC check. Emails simply don’t arrive at the inbox. P=reject should always be the goal when implementing DMARC.

Email Marketers

Email marketers mainly use email as a marketing tool to reach and engage with prospects, customers, or subscribers for promotional or informational purposes. Their primary goal is to create and execute email campaigns that drive specific actions, such as purchasing, signing up for a service, engaging with content or attending an event.

A fair chunk of email marketers measure the success of their campaigns by metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates and overall campaign ROI. With wrongly configured authentication, emails will not be delivered, which results in zero opens. So make sure you’ve properly authenticated your mail flows to get the best deliverability results!

But what if there’s a way to even show your company’s logo in your target audience’s inbox and improve your valuable metrics? Meet BIMI, the authentication protocol that is built on top of DMARC.

Brand Indicators for Message Identification

BIMI stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification and is one of the latest email authentication protocols. It has gained a fair share of attention from email marketers. BIMI allows a company’s email to stand out from the crowd in a crowded inbox.

PostNL being one of the first to implement BIMI in The Netherlands with DMARC Advisor

When the recipient server checks your domain for DMARC, it also looks for a BIMI record (in the DNS). If the records match, your company’s logo is displayed. The logo is not part of the email message but appears on the mail server, inaccessible to scammers. This feature distinguishes emails from phishing attempts, enhancing email security and trust.

Why implement BIMI?

From a security perspective, BIMI can only be implemented when the DMARC policy for that particular domain is set to either p=quarantine or p=reject. That’s simply the requirement. So, the domain needs to be protected in a certain way to be eligible for BIMI.

From a marketing perspective, BIMI allows you to:

• Show your logo in your email messages;
• Create more visibility within the inbox of the receiver;
• Gain trust amongst your receivers;
• Generate more opens and, therefore, clicks!

The first collaboration between security and marketing

BIMI is the first open standard that brings email security and marketers together. For email marketers to have greater success with their campaigns with BIMI, security must first implement the open standards SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. WIN—WIN for everybody!

At DMARC Advisor, we have been talking internally for quite some time about

the marketing department being responsible for a lot within an organisation. The brand image, the tone of voice, content, events, etc. But why not the reputation of a domain? Whenever an organisation is being attacked by cyber criminals via domain spoofing, the marketing team gets to clean up the mess by making public statements. So why aren’t they more involved in preventing the attack from happening in the first place?

Google & Yahoo Sender Requirements

Email giants Google and Yahoo have announced stricter requirements for bulk email senders. These new terms, although email authentication is not new at all, which went into effect on February 1, 2024, are expected to keep more spam messages out of their users’ inboxes. The enforcement of their requirements has been rolled out partially.

Finally these email giants recognise their responsibility and impact on the safety of the entire ecosystem. So while we may call this a gigantic and positive shift in the battle against spam and phishing, it does put many companies under significant time pressure. But in our honest opinion, organisations had more than enough time to get started in the first place.

This will seriously affect your emails, especially if you are a bulk email sender and have not yet complied with these rules. Then, they are either marked as spam or blocked completely.

A bulk email sender is considered a domain that sends more than 5,000 emails in a day from one “From: domain” to Google or Yahoo. You are permanently labelled as a bulk sender if you send over 5,000 emails a day just once.

We have created an image that shows an overview of these requirements for both bulk email senders and non-bulk senders.

This is very important for email marketers: starting June 1st, 2024, the one-click unsubscribe link is mandatory for all non-transactional emails.

To Summarise

In the past, email marketers weren’t involved in email authentication protocols like they should have been. BIMI created traction with email marketers by adding value to the inbox placement. The only downside is that BIMI can only be implemented when DMARC has been added to the domain with either p=quarantine or the p=reject policy.

This meant that email marketers were now forced to work with the company’s IT security departments to start with DMARC.

At DMARC Advisor, we saw many organisations still struggling to start with DMARC and get all their domains to stricter DMARC policies. But now, with the Google and Yahoo requirements for (bulk) email senders, email marketers and security are feeling the pressure to start. Nobody exactly knows the impact of the enforcement of the requirements, and it’s still too early to draw any conclusions.

If you want to start or are working on getting your organisational domains to DMARC with a strict policy, take your time and start gathering data first before jumping straight to p=quarantine or p=reject.

Author

Joost Brand
Marketing Coordinator | DMARC Advisor

“Guys, it’s almost three o’clock, we’re about to send out the emails!” This was a very common phrase at the organisation where I worked back in the 1990s. Every day at three o’clock, the system administrator would connect to the internet via a 28k8 modem and send out the emails for that day.

This article is written by John Eising, Marketing Automation & Customer Journey Expert and Managing Partner at De Heeren van Veertig Plus (Sponsor van de Email Marketing Automation Summit 2024).

It has not been that long since email started to become commonplace in the business world. In the same 1990s, this form of communication really began to take off.

With the emergence of this new channel, completely new opportunities opened up for marketers. In this article, I will discuss the developments that digital communication has undergone, as we currently stand on the brink of a revolutionary step in the pursuit of greater efficiency, relevance, and personalisation: the application of AI in Marketing Automation.

The SPAM Era: Within the age of Unwanted Messages

The rise of email subsequently marked the beginning of ‘the SPAM era’. During this time, emails were mainly simple advertisements for various dubious products. Such as irrelevant emails about weight loss pills or Viagra. In this era of unwanted messages, the term SPAM was coined: Sending People Annoying Mail. Email was not yet seen as a very serious channel for commercial mass communication, but rather as an irrelevant addition to the traditional marketing tools that could merely be used to SPAM people.

Rise of Personalisation: The Importance of Relevance

Smart marketers quickly recognised the importance of personalisation, and thus the enormous power of using email as a marketing channel. Emails became much more focused on the individual recipient, and became based on personal preferences, purchase history, and behaviour. In other words, the content of emails was tailored to the recipient’s interests.

This shift marked the first steps towards relevance in email marketing. Additionally, because of the measurability of the channel, it could be proved that relevance directly impacted customer engagement. Therefore, the marketeer was finally able to discern a direct correlation between the costs and revenue in terms of conversion rates, leading to the widespread adoption of the term ROI (Return of Investement).

Striving for Relevance: Advanced Segmentation and Targeting

Distinguishing your product or service from the competition has always been an important challenge. This is no different for email: Why would someone give their personal details to receive all kinds of emails from you? Organisations can distinguish themselves by delivering relevant and personalised content, but how do you decide who will receive that content? In other words: Which content is relevant to whom?

The answer to this question was: segmentation. After personalisation of email content became more popular among marketeers, advanced segmentation and targeting techniques were used to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time. This focus on relevance led to further improvements of the final email marketing results.

Rise of Hyper-Personalization: The New Standard

The next phase was characterised by hyper-personalisation, where every interaction with the recipient is utilised to further refine the content and offers. This is not just about using the recipient’s first name in the subject line, but about delivering highly personalised and contextual experiences, which is mainly based on real-time data and machine learning algorithms.

Therefore, instead of merely spamming a costumer with as many products as possible, this enables the marketeer to add relevant products to an email based on, for example, someone’s behaviour on the website, purchase history or clicks in previous emails.

To achieve this, it is important to have access to some important ingredients. First of all, rich and sufficient data is needed in order to make well-informed decisions.

Secondly, there is a need for an adequate platform which is able to interpret this data based on algorithms. Lastly, a solid technical design of email templates and webpages is of great importance to be able to process variable and personalised data.

This will bring you endless possibilities in the use of personalisation and variables, and thus of hyper-personalisation. A dream for the real data-driven marketeer.

Data-driven Marketing Automation

Adding more relevance to your marketing communication might sounds easier than it actually is. How do you make sure that the enormous, and often complex, amounts of data will help you send the right content, at the right time, to the right person? This data driven approach created a need among marketeers to automate such processes. In other words: this sparked the emergence of marketing automation platforms.

A marketing automation tool is able to make decisions based on these enormous amounts of data, coming from various data sources, enabling these tools so often go beyond the human brain. A risk, however, is that this encourages discussions within an organisation. Because what should be trusted? The human gut feeling, or the data?

One thing is certain: both will result in completely different emails.

As an example, if you were a marketeer within the travel industry and someone booked a trip to Ibiza last year, a logical thought is ‘maybe this year they would want to go to Ibiza again’.

When using a data driven approach however, this case is analysed from many more different perspectives. Additional data that is taken into account with such an approach is, for example, which reviews the costumer left after the last vacation, recent click behaviour, or behaviour of comparable costumer profiles, etc. In the end, this could potentially lead to completely different offers presented in the email, compared to those that would have been put in the email based on gut feeling.

As a result, with a data driven approach, some costumers would indeed get the offer to go to Ibiza again, while other costumers will be offered a road trip to the coast of France. In other words, all costumers will get a tailored offer in their email which is based on data.

Omnichannel Marketing is key

As email marketing evolved, the concept of omnichannel marketing emerged alongside it. Omnichannel refers to seamlessly integrating various marketing channels to provide a consistent and personalised experience to customers, regardless of the channel they use. This could then be done via email, social media, SMS, or even in physical stores.

The goal of omnichannel is to optimise the customer journey and increase engagement by delivering an integrated and cohesive brand experience.

Dilemma for the Marketer: Which Tool Is Truly Suitable for Omnichannel?

With the emergence of the omnichannel approach, the need for suitable tools also arose. This has caused, to this day, a diffuse landscape of very diverse platforms all claiming to facilitate omnichannel marketing. However, for the end-user, it is very difficult to assess which tooling is suitable for their organisation.

Indeed, this can potentially lead to misjudgements, resulting in the failure to achieve success with the omnichannel approach.

The Role of AI in Marketing Automation

The development of Marketing Automation has taken a significant leap already, but there is more to come. A recent development is the emergence of AI Agents. Many might immediately think of popular agents such as ChatGPT, Alexa, or Siri, but AI Agents are rapidly integrated in more and more facets of our daily life.

It might not come as a surprise, but even the use of AI in marketing automation is becoming more common. Until now, this often means that AI is used to come up with alternative email subjects or to translate an article. On the other side, I personally believe that AI Agents will soon take over tasks of marketeers.

AI agents are set to play a crucial role in automating and optimising marketing processes across different channels. By analysing large amounts of data, AI agents could generate insights, identify trends, and make predictions about customer behaviours. These insights could then be used to deliver personalised and contextual experiences via different channels, resulting in increased engagement and conversion rates.

Considering the great opportunities AI offers, a commonly asked question then is: will AI Agents take over all the work of the marketeer and in the end replace them? In other words, is AI a threat or will it result in the perfect collaboration between AI agents and the marketeer?

What are AI Agents?

AI agents, also known as AI bots or virtual assistants, are advanced software programs designed to perform tasks in a way that resembles human intelligence. They use various forms of AI, including machine learning and natural language processing, to learn from data, understand context, and make decisions based on complex information.

Unlike traditional bots or chatbots, which are often limited to pre-programmed scripts, AI agents have the ability to learn and adapt to new situations and problems. They can communicate with users via text, speech, or other interfaces, and are capable of performing tasks that were previously only possible by humans.

Not Just Reactive

It is important to note that AI agents are not just reactive, as they can also act proactively. AI agents can anticipate user needs, identify problems before they arise, and take action independently to solve problems or seize opportunities.

To summarise, AI agents represent a new generation of intelligent software that is capable of performing tasks, making decisions, and communicating with users in a way that was previously only possible through human intervention.

The Role of AI-Agents in Marketing Automation

But what role could an AI agent play in Marketing Automation? Is your job at risk because of this? Are we heading towards a landscape where humans are redundant and only AI agents communicate with each other? I personally do not think it will go that far. The key is to use the smart aspects of these agents to optimise your processes, which will enable the marketer to focus on other important tasks.

When used properly, AI-Agents could play a crucial role in automating repetitive tasks. To demonstrate this, I will focus on two important processes: ‘Customer service and support’ and ‘more advanced marketing’.

Improved Customer Service and Support

One of the most obvious applications of AI agents within marketing automation, in my opinion, is that you can significantly improve customer service and support. Availability of these services, first and foremost, is of great importance: twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. During a time where employee perspectives are changing, while looking for a healthy work-life balance, together with the limited supply in the job market, AI could be a very welcome addition here.

But how can you increase the efficiency of your customer service or support department with AI agents? In addition to continuous availability, I believe response time could play a crucial role. Where you currently have to endlessly press keys and wait on hold, an AI-Agent can assist you within just a few seconds.

If AI agents are provided with rich data, companies could increase the efficiency of their customer service by providing faster response times, 24/7 availability, and personalised, relevant support. Not entirely unimportant to know, through natural language processing, AI-Agents can engage in natural conversations with customers. Therefore, they are able to identify and solve problems, and even answer complex questions without the need for human intervention. Ultimately, this could be the

solution for organisations in the pursuit of improved customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and lower operational costs for the company.

Automated Marketing Campaigns

In addition to customer service, AI-Agents can be used to automate marketing campaigns. For the majority of marketing departments, setting up a digital marketing campaign still involves a lot of manual work.

The reason why marketeers continue to set up campaigns manually, is often partly due to their insufficient or very limited technical knowledge about marketing automation. At the same time, the technical limitations of tools and the highly fragmented landscape are at the same time reinforcing the difficulty of the marketing automation process as a whole.

Marketeers are often still manually setting up emails, web pages, segmenting target groups, personalizing content, and analysing results. With AI agents, they could largely automate and optimise these processes, which provides the marketeer with valuable time which can be used for things AI agents cannot do.

More Time for the Fun Stuff

So, is AI a threat for the marketeer or rather the perfect colleague. I personally believe marketeers and AI agents could form a great collaboration which will eventually benefit the marketing automation processes in an organisation as a whole.

Based on advanced algorithms and machine learning, AI agents can analyse large amounts of data to generate insights, personalise campaigns based on individual customer needs, and even make real-time adjustments based on changing circumstances. This enables marketers to spend more time on strategic tasks and creative aspects of marketing, while AI agents handle the operational tasks.

A collaboration between the marketer and AI agents could potentially lead to fully optimised campaigns where the technical superiority of AI is combined with the creativity and strategic vision of the marketer.

Currently we are still discovering the opportunities of AI in marketing automation. As with every new development, there are many worries and questions regarding the use of AI. In the end, the success of AI in marketing automation will depend on the marketer being able to use it in such a way that it actually works for them and so they can benefit

from the possibilities. And when that happens, I personally believe that marketing automation can truly ‘work’ for you!

Author

John Eising
Marketing Automation & Customer Journey Expert and Managing Partner | De Heeren van Veertig Plus

Loyalty is often seen as a phase in the customer journey, but if you really want to approach it well, you should consider loyalty as a separate journey. This journey requires a new strategy. Your data and technology need to be in order, and you need new content. In short, it’s different from your regular marketing efforts.

This article is written by Mi-Choe Emanuelson, Recruitment & Content Marketer at 100procent (Sponsor of the Email Marketing Automation Summit 2024).

Loyalty programs are used to increase customer lifetime value. You not only want customers who spend a lot, but also customers who return regularly. Research from the loyalty platform Comarch found that on average, a consumer participates in 13 or 14 loyalty programs, but feels truly connected to only 3 or 4 brands. 64% of surveyed consumers are willing to provide personal information in exchange for a personal benefit. In this blog, we explain how to turn customers into brand ambassadors using the four pillars of strategy, data, creation, and technology.

The Loyalty Journey

When setting up the loyalty journey, it’s important to know that there are two different forms of loyalty:

1. Transactional Loyalty: Customers are loyal because of discounts or gifts. They value loyalty programs and attractive discounts. They don’t necessarily feel connected to your brand, but to your actions.
2. Emotional Loyalty: Customers feel emotionally connected to your brand, which is a sustainable form of loyalty. If they could buy the same product elsewhere with a discount, they would prefer the qualitative customer experience they expect from you.

By setting up loyalty as a separate journey, you ensure that your customers have a unique and consistent customer experience across all channels.

What You Need to Set Up the Loyalty Journey

• Data and insight into customer behavior across all channels.
• Good accessibility across all channels.
• Feedback from customers to continuously optimize the journey.
• A mix of email and direct messaging campaigns to reach customers at the right time.
• Dynamic content to show relevant content to each individual customer.
• Advertisements based on customer behavior.
• Monitoring and staying informed about developments in customer behavior and value development.

The Strategy Behind a Successful Loyalty Journey

You want to retain customers and extract more value from them, so you’ve come up with the idea to start a loyalty program. Then it’s logical that you’ll encounter a few challenges, which you can tackle with the right strategy. Ask yourself how you’re going to implement the loyalty journey in practice? Does this fall under marketing, CRM, or is there someone else who will be responsible for this? How do you ensure that the contact moments are well aligned with the regular marketing efforts so that customers are not overwhelmed by messages? What do the loyalty campaigns look like, do you need a different template? How do you use the different channels and how do you deal with customers who, for example, want to redeem a voucher from an email in the store? How do you display the loyalty program on the website?

6 Reasons to Implement a Loyalty Program

1. Turning customers into repeat customers
2. Collecting (positive) reviews
3. Testing new products
4. Gathering customer data
5. Increasing newsletter subscriptions and other mailings
6. Selling specific products

In this blog, you’ll learn more about the strategic value of loyalty and the reasons to implement it.

Data and Loyalty

Now that your strategy and goals have been determined, it’s time to inventory the data. What do you already know about your customers? How much is a customer worth, i.e., what is the customer lifetime value? A loyalty program generates a lot of data. You collect data during every contact moment and every purchase. You can use this wealth of information not only to approach your customers even more targeted but also to better tailor your product offering to the demand. This way, you know better what the customers need, which is exactly what the purchasing department also wants to know.

Create Engaging Content that Connects

With all the data in order, you can create dynamic content and ensure that the messages are personalized. Often, a loyalty program has different expressions, but still in line with the corporate identity. This way, the customer immediately sees that it’s a message about the loyalty program and not, for example, the regular newsletter. By consistently using loyalty content across all channels, it will become a kind of sub-brand for your customers. And you create extra engagement with your brand.

Is Your Martech Setup Adequate?

The loyalty journey presents a great challenge for your martech setup. Customers expect a seamless transition across all channels and a user-friendly experience. Whether someone is in the store or using your app or website. The data from the loyalty program must always be up to date everywhere, and the different channels must work together flawlessly. Your systems must be able to process large amounts of data and ensure that everything is visible and up to date everywhere.

What Do Successful Loyalty Programs Have in Common?

BP was one of the first major brands to start a loyalty program, the well-known Freebees. With every refuel, you collected free points that you could redeem for nice gifts or a discount on a refuel. And who doesn’t collect Air Miles? This loyalty program from Loyalty Management Netherlands has been one of the most well-known loyalty programs for 30 years. By now, we all know the loyalty programs of major brands like Albert Heijn, Hema, and Bol.com. Albert Heijn conquered the Netherlands with personalized bonus offers and various loyalty programs. Whether a loyalty program is successful depends on its user-friendliness. Customers drop out as soon as it doesn’t work smoothly or if the channels don’t connect.

Trends in Loyalty

Gamification: Think of surprising game elements like a quiz, challenge, or reward. It’s all about interaction and engagement.

Sustainability: Showing social responsibility can lead to positive customer reactions. For example, you can offer a sustainable reward. Redeem your points and donate the amount to a charity.

Exclusivity: Customers love preferential treatment and rewards for their loyalty. Exclusive events, early access, and new products in pre-sale always work well. Personalization can also remain high on the agenda. Customers want offers and actions that exactly match their wishes and needs. Let your customers know that you personally appreciate them!

Conclusion

Those starting a loyalty program don’t necessarily expect immediate success. Projects like these require perseverance. First, you need to create awareness, and then customers need to get used to the loyalty program. So, the better you collect feedback, the faster you can optimize the journey. Customers love good news, surprises, privileges, gifts, and discounts. Provide tangible rewards that are relevant to your customer. And use it for extra contact moments that contribute to customer loyalty. Reward your most loyal customers. Be grateful and original!

Author

Mi-Choe Emanuelson
Recruitment & Content Marketeer | 100procent

Voor de DDMA EMAS Awards 2024 staat de Battle of the Agencies ook dit jaar op het programma. De inschrijving is vanaf vandaag geopend. Ambitieuze e-mailmarketingbureaus kunnen zich vanaf nu registreren door een motivatie in te dienen via: emas.nu/awards/battle

In deze bureaucompetitie strijden bureaus om wie de beste e-mailcampagne maakt voor een opdrachtgever. De winnaar zet zichzelf op de kaart als autoriteit binnen het vakgebied en speelt zichzelf in de kijker van een (inter)nationaal publiek, met potentiële klanten.

De opdrachtgever dit jaar is retailer Brabantia. Bureaus kunnen tot uiterlijk 5 april een motivatie indienen om mee te doen. Brabantia beoordeelt de motivaties anoniem en selecteert drie bureaus voor deelname.

Gang van zaken voor geselecteerde bureaus

Nadat Brabantia op basis van de motivaties drie bureaus hebben geselecteerd, doorlopen deze bureaus de volgende stappen.

• De bureaus ontvangen de case vanuit Brabantia
• De bureaus maken een ontwerp voor de mail op basis van de briefing van Brabantia
• De genomineerde bureaus dienen één HTML-e-mail in bij Brabantia op basis van het design dat is geaccordeerd, die dynamische inhoud kan bevatten zoals beschreven in de briefing.
• Het doelpubliek voor alle e-mails is uniform en zal worden geselecteerd door Brabantia.
• Brabantia zal de verzending afhandelen met behulp van haar eigen systemen.
• Alle communicatie zal gelijktijdig door Brabantia worden verzonden.
• Brabantia zal de resultaten meten en de winnaar bekend maken op de EMAS op 27 juni
• Als de verstrekte e-mail niet voldoet aan de regels, behoudt Brabantia zich het recht voor om op elk moment af te zien van het verzenden van de e-mail.

Criteria

Brabantia beoordeelt de verzonden e-mails op basis van de volgende metrics:

• Conversieratio
• Openratio
• Click-to-open ratio
• Afmeldratio
• Beoordeling van creativiteit en originaliteit (door het e-mailmarketingteam van Brabantia).

Casepitch en uitreiking

Op 27 juni, tijdens de DDMA Email Marketing Automation Summit (EMAS), strijden de 3 geselecteerde bureaus om de prijs. Ieder bureau houdt een boeiende pitch (8 tot 10 minuten) waarin ze hun aanpak, de redenering achter hun keuzes en het uiterlijk van hun campagne uitleggen. Daarna maakt Brabantia de winnaar bekend.

Over de EMAS

Met vorig jaar bijna 500 bezoekers is de EMAS de grootste conferentie op het gebied van e-mail marketing automation in de Benelux. E-mailmarketeers, CRM-marketeers, digital marketeers en marketing automation-specialisten komen bijeen om te leren over de nieuwste ontwikkelingen op het gebied van onder meer deliverability, security, e-mail marketing automation en leadgeneratie. Voor bezoekers is de EMAS hét moment van het jaar om te sparren met internationale, toonaangevende sprekers binnen hun vakgebied. De volgende editie vindt plaats op 27 juni 2024 in Circa Amsterdam en wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door sponsoren 100procent, Maileon, RapidSugar en Deploytec.

Over DDMA
DDMA is de grootste branchevereniging voor marketing en data. Wij zijn een netwerk van ruim 360 merken, non-profits, uitgevers, bureaus en tech-leveranciers die data succesvol en verantwoord willen inzetten voor marketingdoeleinden. Wij duiden ontwikkelingen op het gebied van technologie, regelgeving en ethiek en brengen marketeers, dataspecialisten en juristen bij elkaar om hen te helpen groeien in hun vak. Ook bevorderen we zelfregulering en zijn we gesprekspartner van beleidsmakers en toezichthouders.

Modular email design is transforming the landscape of email marketing. But modules are way more than just perfectly designed email snippets. This new approach to the modules and email production, as a result, will totally reshape the workflow within email marketing teams, enabling marketers to focus more on strategy than on technical details.

Module library over templates library

Email turns 50 this year, and over this period, it has evolved from a plain-text format into a dynamic one. Over the years, there have been numerous approaches to email production, including plain text, HTML coding, WYSIWYG editors, drag-and-drop builders, prebuilt templates, and the modular email design itself.

Today the world is still in the “Prebuilt templates” phase. Most tools even boast about their number of templates, describing it as one of their most valuable features.  However, a template is just a marketing trick and not a real saver for email marketers.

No matter how many templates an email design software has, you only have to choose one of them. And then work on it, and with it — you modify its content from campaign to campaign, etc. But what if you want to change the structure of the template or alter some elements? You need to restructure and modify the entire template.

As for the module, it is an independent content unit; its design and content are brand consistent but have a unique structure, unique content, and, more importantly, its purpose. So you can easily combine them. This is why software tools actually should brag about theirmodule library, where all the modules are independent.

Luckily, today, the world is slowly transitioning from the templates stage to the modular email design stage.

State of modular email design today

Firstly, it is worth mentioning that the “modular email design” may also be referred to as “modular email architecture” or simply “modules.” So, you can come across any of these terms online.

Today, in fact, many CDPs/ESPs and email builders support modules. Most see it as saving and reusing the most frequently used email elements across future email campaigns. This approach gives us the following advantages:

• Easy to maintain brand consistency
• Email production becomes time- and cost-effective
• Simplified design process
• No need to run email tests that often
• Hassle-free last-moment changes

And all this is correct, but to me, a modular email design is about much more than just dragging prebuilt email elements. It goes a step further.

One step further: Modules+

I see a module as a content unit where the design can be dissociated from the data, I call it “Modules+.” This is the essence of the modular email architecture, and this is what makes it a new philosophy that fundamentally transforms the email production experience.

What does “data dissociated from the design” mean?

It means that you can optimize, change, edit, and modify the design of the module the way you like, and this will not affect the data in this unit. Or you can build a wireframe of a certain email section/module, set its structure, assign a location and dimensions for each element inside this module, and then update only dynamical content, i.e., data. The latter will inherit all design styles that were previously set for this particular module.

What problem do they solve?

Gamification in emails, which is a trend now, abandoned cart emails or any other emails with dynamic and interactive content, require coding. In order to create such content for newsletters, email marketers need to either learn to code (which is not what they are supposed to do, I’d rather they focus on marketing) or ask developers for help anytime they initiate a new campaign or need to make the smallest change to the email’s, as it is closely tied to the data.

With the modules+, which allows the design to be separated from the data, we finally enable email marketers to work on the design independently. This saves both marketers and developers a significant amount of time, even when making bulk updates to the design of the modules without affecting data.

To empower email marketers and make them self-reliant, modern email building software (some already have this capability) should prioritize automating the process of pulling data into emails. This can be achieved through links, variables, and other means. Essentially coders and developers would set up this functionality just once. Then the email marketer can independently just update/replace this data with the necessary one without dealing with the code or even automatically.

This will result in totally new flows inside email marketing teams.

Benefits the modules+ bring us

• You can “lock” the design. Meaning once you’ve built a wireframe, its design styles, including the number of images and their location, cannot be altered when you update the data in the module;
• You can create modules with Smart elements and “lock” the data. Meaning you can affect the colors of the buttons, font size, and color, but you cannot modify what data that gets pulled into the module via a link;
• You can pull in the data via a link or a variable into your modules, as in abandoned cart emails, automatically;
• You can bulk update the design or data in your modules by modifying only one once they are synchronized. Meaning you can automatically update all existing emails by modifying one single module;
• You can create complex modules with AMP content, its HTML and text fallbacks, and let email marketers deal with the visual elements through UI, not dealing with data. You can generate these modules with Stripo, and use them in your tool because the modules are compatible with any email builder and ESP that have support for AMP.

Key takeaways

I believe that coding emails is not something that marketers should do. They should focus on marketing strategies instead. And this is where the modular email design comes to the rescue.

1. Module library goes before template library
2. Design must be dissociated from data in modules
3. Modules should be synchronized for bulk editing
4. We need to automate the ways to pull data into the modules

Author:
Dmitry Kudrenko
Founder & CEO of Stripo

Last year, the Dutch Association for data & marketing (DDMA) and the Global Data & Marketing Alliance (GDMA) joined forces with local DMAs and Email Service Providers (ESPs) across the world to create the very-first  . Recently, the DDMA and GDMA hosted a roundtable session for all partners to discuss the results of this study and the next steps for the upcoming, second edition of the benchmark. In this article, we shed light on the most important highlights of this discussion.

Note: this study provided an international representation of the email industry, with partners and ESPs from Latin America, Canada/North America, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Legal rules, hygiene maturity and deliverability determine Acceptance Rates & Hard Bounce Rates

The overall Acceptance Rate (AR) is 98,2%, and Hard Bounce Rate (HBR) 0,92%. ESPs in the Netherlands/Belgium achieve rates above average (AR: 98,8%, HBR: 0,26%), while the UK scores on average (AR: 98,1%, HBR: unknown) and there are significant differences between the Latin America region.

With regards to the Acceptance Rate, Brazil scores significantly lower (95,1%), where some counties like Paraguay and Columbia have a positive 98,6% AR. Brazil (2,79%) and Chili (2,00%) have a remarkable high Hard Bounce Rate, compared to other countries in the Latin American region, like Mexico (0,57%) or Ecuador (0,71%).

The difference between the Netherlands/Belgium and the other countries can be explained by legal rules, list hygiene maturity, for example by using several feedback-loops, and best practices in deliverability. In some countries in the Latin American region, Hard Bounces are not directly excluded for future sending. In the Netherlands and Canada/North America, the legal rules are strict and not following them would potentially result in an economic or cultural risk.

Data maturity and strategy affect Unique Confirmed Open Rate and Unique Click Through Rate

The total average of Unique Confirmed Opens (COR) is 22,1% and Unique Click Through Rate (CTR) 2,7%. We can see again significant differences between the Netherlands/Belgium (COR: 39,6%, CTR: 7,1%), the UK (COR: 19,7%, CTR 2,8%) and the subtotal of the Latin American countries (COR 20,4%, CTR 2,1%). If we look at the differences between the Latin American countries, Brazil (COR: 12,6%, CTR: 1,1%) and Peru (COR: 13,7%, CTR: 1,2%) score significantly lower than the rest, like Chili (26,9%) and Mexico (25,9%) with much higher open rates, and in Argentina (2,5%) and Uruguay (2,6%) with much better Click Through Rates.

The Apple Mail Privacy Protection was introduced in September 2021 – the study is based on 2021 data, and affects the open rates, and to a certain extent the open rate data. A logical hypothesis is the higher adoption rate of iOS in the Netherlands/Belgium compared to the Latin American countries. Moreover, the maturity and different strategies of email marketing also affect the differences in engagement (like open rates and clicks). For example, a strategy of sending newsletters, service/loyalty e-mails and triggered/event based campaigns, creates a much higher engagement than one-off, blast sell campaigns.

Retail/e-commerce and non-profit industries outperform all other industries regarding Unique Click Trough Rate

Of all industries available, retail/e-commerce (3,7%) and the non-profit industry (4,3%) are the best performing industries in terms of Unique Click Through Rate (CTR total average is 2,7%). Travel (1,9%) scores the lowest CTR.

If we look at the Latin American region specifically, there are some remarkable outcomes which could not be explained directly in the discussion. Such as, a very high CTR in Peru (10,5%) in the business service industry, where it might be more difficult to differentiate specific industries.

Most email campaigns were sent in Q4 and at the end of the office week

In general, most campaigns were globally sent in Q4, with Q1 coming in last. This can be explained due to events like Black Friday, public holidays and end of year actions. Advertisers usually invest in Q1 for planning and hit off again in Q2.

Again, for all countries in the study, most email campaigns were sent at the end of the office week: 18% of all campaigns on both Thursdays and Fridays. The least popular is the weekend, with 14% being sent throughout the weekend.

However, if we look at the engagement, weekend sending in some countries score better than during office days. For example, in the Netherlands and in Belgium the CTR is actually highest on emails sent on Saturdays (8,3%) and in Paraguay the open rate is highest on Sundays (26,5%). Of course, the business line (B2B/B2C) is a factor which could be affecting the differences as well.

Next steps: second edition of the GDMA International Email Benchmark

The roundtable discussion was also an opportunity to brainstorm on the this year’s 2023-publication and how it can be made even better and more valuable to the industry. First, the objective is to transfer from a static whitepaper to an interactive dashboard in which marketers can dive deeper for specific metrics for their own purposes. For example, to filter on industry, business line and scope. Furthermore, the ambition is of course to extend the benchmark to more countries and ESPs.

There is still time for ESPs to join the 2023 International Email Benchmark. We are looking for ESPs to join this international effort to:

• Help map the email marketing channel on a global scale
• Benchmark your data & clients’ campaigns to others around the world
• Provide an even-bigger independent baseline measurement for any organization using email marketing to compare their metrics
• Contact us & join the global email benchmark: rdewouters@fedma.org

Authors:

• Jasper Kolwijck, Lead Email & Messaging Team at KPN and DDMA committee member Email
• Nanda Appelman, Market Insights Specialist at DDMA

Final editors:

• Bob Younge, Content Specialist at DDMA
• Robin de Wouters, Communication & Commercial Director at GDMA

Na twee jaar afwezigheid is de DDMA Email Marketing Automation Summit (EMAS) sinds 2022 weer terug van weggeweest. De DDMA Commissie E-mail, de initiatiefnemer van het congres, is alweer druk bezig met de voorbereidingen voor de volgende editie. Maar wat komt er eigenlijk allemaal kijken bij het organiseren van zo’n groot evenement? Hoe pakken we het dit jaar aan? Wij leggen het je in dit artikel haarfijn uit.

De drijvende kracht achter de EMAS is de DDMA Commissie E-mail, een groep gepassioneerde vakexperts met een hart voor e-mail marketing automation. Onder leiding en begeleiding van voorzitter Alida van Kempen (Bikkelhart) en DDMA, branchevereniging voor data en marketing, streeft de Commissie er ieder jaar naar het e-mailvakgebied naar een hoger plan te tillen, vanuit verschillende werkgroepen en kennisactiviteiten, waaronder de EMAS.

Een goede evaluatie is essentieel

Vanzelfsprekend vindt er ieder jaar een kick-off plaats. Maar… de eerste voorbereidingen beginnen eigenlijk al eerder. Na elke editie wordt er namelijk uitgebreid geëvalueerd. De commissie streeft ieder jaar naar een betere editie dan de vorige en daarom is het altijd goed om terug te kijken om te ontdekken waar er ruimte is voor verbetering. Zo behandelen we ieder jaar de reacties op de bezoekersenquête; wat vonden ze van het programma, de locatie en de catering? Wat vonden sponsoren van het evenement? Hoe vonden we het zelf gaan?

Met de evaluatie achter de rug en na een break van 2 maanden stonden alle commissieleden met hernieuwde energie in de startblokken voor de kick-off in september. Voorafgaand aan de kick-off hebben voorzitter Alida van Kempen (Bikkelhart) en commissielid Noortje Berrevoet (RapidSugar) aan de hand van de evaluatie in grote lijnen voorbereid waar de EMAS 2023 aan moet voldoen. Daarna hebben we bepaald wie van de EMAS-werkgroep verantwoordelijk is voor welk onderdeel van het evenement. Zo zijn we gekomen tot de volgende subgroepen:

3. Programma en sprekers
   Deze subgroep bepaalt de onderwerpen en thema’s die op de EMAS aan bod komen. Maar dat gaat verder dan je denkt; de EMAS is een event voor iedereen op het gebied van e-mail marketing automation. En dat is een internationaal vakgebied waarin mensen met verschillende achtergronden en niveaus actief zijn. In de samenstelling van het programma houdt de subgroep hier dan ook rekening mee, zodat iedere bezoeker aan het einde van de dag met waardevolle kennis naar huis gaat.We zijn op dit moment druk bezig met de samenstelling van het programma. Heb jij een interessante case met betrekking tot een of meer van de bovenstaande thema’s? Stuur dan een mailtje naar liekewesselius@ddma.nl en wie weet staat jouw organisatie binnenkort op het podium.
4. Sponsoring
   De subgroep Sponsoring is samen met DDMA’s relatiemanager verantwoordelijk voor het binnenhalen van voldoende sponsoring. De EMAS leunt naast financiële ondersteuning via ticketverkoop namelijk voor een groot deel ook op sponsoren. De subgroep denkt mee over welke organisaties hier geschikt voor zijn. Daarnaast denken ze ook mee over de inhoud van de sponsorpakketten. Zo zorgen ze ervoor dat sponsoren zoveel mogelijk uit het evenement kunnen halen. Als dat duidelijk is benaderen de subgroep en de relatiemanager van DDMA de potentiële sponsoren.Interesse om de EMAS 2023 te sponsoren? Neem contact met ons op via sponsoring@ddma.nl
5. De EMAS Awards
   De EMAS Awards zijn ieder jaar een groot onderdeel van het programma en verdienen daarom een aparte subgroep – zeker omdat de Awards sinds de afgelopen editie in een nieuw jasje zijn gestoken met nieuwe categorieën en een nieuwe jury. Overigens met succes en veel positieve reacties! Uiteraard is er nog wel ruimte voor verbetering. De subgroep heeft de evaluatie net achter de rug en is op dit moment druk bezig om verbeterpunten door te voeren voor de volgende editie.Nog extra het benoemen waard: de Battle of the Agencies. Ieder jaar strijden de beste e-mailmarketingbureaus van Nederland met elkaar om de titel om wie de beste campagne maakt voor vooraf bepaalde opdrachtgever. Vorig jaar was dat Air Miles. De subgroep is nu hard op zoek naar een nieuwe opdrachtgever die hiervoor openstaat.
6. Communicatie
   De subgroep Communicatie bestaat uit een aantal commissieleden en DDMA’s communicatiespecialist. Aan de hand van input van de subgroep werkt DDMA van begin tot eind een communicatieplan uit – vanaf de eerste aankondiging van het congres, tot aan de allerlaatste terugblik-post op de social kanalen. Een belangrijk onderdeel van de EMAS-communicatie zijn de interviews met sprekers. Om de EMAS-doelgroep alvast een voorproefje te geven van wat er gaat komen interviewt de subgroep een aantal sprekers die op het programma staan en publiceert de uitgewerkte artikelen op de website en vakmedia als Marketingfacts en Emerce.

De spin in het web

We kunnen wel stellen dat er veel aan te pas komt bij het organiseren van de EMAS. Qua inhoud, sponsoring en communicatie is het congres met de bovenstaande subgroepen goed gedekt. Maar.. hoe zit het met de praktische kant achter het congres. Wie verbindt de subgroepen met elkaar? Wie is de spil binnen de algehele organisatie?

Het antwoord is simpel: Merel de Koning, eventmanager bij DDMA. Al vanaf de eerste editie (in 2012) is zij de drijvende kracht achter de EMAS. Zij vertaalt de inhoud, sponsoring en communicatie vanuit de subgroepen tot een wervelende dag vol kennis en inspiratie.

Over de EMAS 2023

De voorbereidingen voor de EMAS 2023 zijn dus in volle gang. Ticketverkoop gaat in januari van start en het event vindt traditiegetrouw vlak voor de zomer plaats. Houd onze kanalen in de gaten voor de officiële aankondiging.

Heb je ideeën voor sprekers of heb je interesse het event te sponsoren? Neem dan gerust contact op.