Email Week in Review: Dec 14th-18th, 2015

Here is what was going on last week on the Only Influencers discussion lists:

1. Engagement in January: A question came up on what weeks in January have the highest engagement. Some sectors such as Telecom, Healthcare, Technology, and Life Sciences actually report some of their highest engagement in January, particularly 3rd and 4th weeks (perhaps related to new year predictions and year in review summaries). But many questioned how valuable the data is in the first place. Interestingly enough, I went back to check on the OI newsletter and found that, in fact, January was on the high side for clicks and opens. In a post this summer, one of the Influencers did some research a few years back and discovered that the "absolute best day and time to send email is on January 2nd at 2pm". 

In general, some data shows that the best engagement levels are in November and the worst in June and August. 

For those interested in the subject of the best time to send, check out this article from Tim Watson at Zettasphere: The Best time to Send; ultimate Answer.

And Karen Talavera has some interesting data on seasonality in her article Holiday Email Marketing Tips for the Non-Retailer. 

2. What is going on at Unroll.me? Many people reporting 10x increases in opt-outs coming from unroll.me this week. What is going on? Turns out the problem is due to a recent improvements in the process it uses to unsub their users. The spikes are temporary and should level out shortly. 

3. Jordie van Rijn has released his annual "Future of Email Marketing" predictions for 2016. You can check it out here: The Future of Email Marketing 2016 Edition

4. Barracuda clicking on Text Based Emails. For a couple of years now, Influencers have been reporting that spam filter bots from Barracuda are generating a ton of clicks in the plan text emails, but not in HTML. You can read more about it in Laura Atkins' blog Word to the Wise: Barracuda Filters Clicking all Links. You can identify, and unsub these bots by removing data for users that click on 98+% of all emails they receive and those clicks are in the TEXT version. These show up within seconds of sending the email. Another solution used by some members is to include a one click unsub link in the TEXT version that has now text link, so that it is only read by the bots. 

5. Check out Phrasee'sNaughty NOT Nice Christmas Story Generator. 

6. New article from Mike Austin: Companies Using Festive Discount Coupons in Emails and What You can Learn from them.

7. This week's OI newsletter is the Most Popular Blog Posts of 2015. Check out the list here. 

8. Rumor is that Google and Yahoo will require DMARC authentication in early 2016, resulting in images being blocked or emails sent to the bulk folder. Is it true? Only Influencers Members know: Consider becoming a member of Only Influencers to stay on top of the latest in Email Marketing everyday.