Email marketers are hungry, sometimes starving, for subscribers’ personal information. But the question must be asked: how much is too much on a demographic form? And how/when do you ask subscribers for more information in a way that they will actually respond positively?

I recently saw a great example from Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill showing how to request a boatload of subscriber information in a seemingly unobtrusive and gentle fashion. The key is to make your subscribers feel needed, appreciated, and welcomed when they read your emails and when they divulge their personal secrets. In the case of Rubio’s, they did not even have to give me a coupon or discount to encourage my participation. (I would note that offering a discount can be helpful in other situations, though.)

Rubio’s sent me an email asking me to join an exclusive panel where I could share my opinions and advise the restaurant on what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, and what they need to be doing better. This in itself is a great idea and goes well beyond the typical subscriber survey.

Once I clicked through the email I was sent to a page where I updated my demographics, answered a bunch of questions, and joined the panel. The questions went well beyond the typical demographics such as date of birth, gender, and location. They also asked my marital status, eating habits, education level, how many kids I have, how large my bank account is, plus much more. In other words, they asked me enough questions to make the US Census jealous!

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Today, Experian Marketing Services is proud to release our latest report, the 2010 Digital marketer: Benchmark and trend report. Looking at the data contained within the report, there is certainly a lot of information for email marketers to chew on.

For the loyal readers of Email Responsibly, I thought I’d add some of my thoughts on the report and explain what these data points mean for the email industry at-large and the state of email marketing.

Let’s jump right in and have a look at what the report tells us:

Time Magazine was right
Way back in December 2006, a number of people (myself included) had a good laugh at the expense of Time Magazine, who named “You” as Person of the Year. At the time, the decision seemed like something of a cop-out and also bit out-of-touch with technology.

But looking at the data from our 2010 Digital marketer: Benchmark and trend report, I couldn’t help but think about Time Magazine and say to myself that they were right — maybe prematurely, but still correct nonetheless. Email marketing today, much like the rest of the Internet, is about you, sometimes even literally. Consider these points from our report:

• Four out of five industries (business products and services, consumer products and services, multichannel retail, travel and entertainment) used the word “you/your” more than any other word in their email subject lines. The fifth industry (catalogers) actually uses the terms “you/your” more than the other four industries (24% of the time), but they also happen to use the terms “free” and “ship” slightly more than that.
• The words “you/your” appear in 19.94% of all email marketing subject lines.
• According to the report, “The increase in usage of the term ‘you/your’ illustrates increased emphasis on businesses building more personal relationships with customers by addressing them directly.”
• According to the report, ”The top term — ‘you/your’ — indicates a clear connection between consumer product and service businesses and their individual customers. The percentages of any ‘top’ word are lower given the wide mix of businesses and product types in this vertical.”

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There has been a discussion amongst us email nerds about what is correct in a subject line: “President’s Day” or “Presidents’ Day” or “Presidents Day.” I thought “Presidents’ Day” was correct since this day honors multiple Presidents. Others argued that “President’s Day” is correct since this day honors Washington only. To put this argument to rest, I did some inbox diving for President’s Day, Presidents’ Day and other variations in subject lines.

Here are the results listing the sender and the subject line. What do you think about these? Please share your thoughts!

Results:

• 34 subject lines were analyzed.
• 20 used Presidents’ (59%)
• 10 used President’s (29%)
• 4 used another variation (12%)
• 2 used both another variation and President’s in different emails (6%)

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Today’s consumers are more connected to their electronic devices and gadgets than ever before. To provide insight on the demographic traits and behavioral tendencies of the consumers that purchase electronics in America, Experian Simmons analyzed relevant information from its 2009 National Consumer Study and New Media Study. Key findings include:

• Seventy-one percent of new TV buyers in 2009 reported purchasing either an LCD or plasma TV, more than double the rate in 2006
• Nearly half of all TV buyers reported that the screen size of their most recent purchase was 40 inches or larger
• Between 2006 and 2009, ownership of VCRs among US households dropped 13% to 79%. Meanwhile, DVR ownership doubled
• The most popular mobile function today is taking pictures, which 70% of mobile phone owners do each month
• Video gaming among adults grew a relative 9% between 2007 and 2009, with half of almost all adults now saying they own or play games

It is refreshing to see how many companies and email marketers have forgone their normal creative and rigorous mailing schedules to assist with earthquake relief in Haiti. Some organization simply added a link or image asking for help, while others dedicated entire emails and product lines to help Haitians in need. Over the past few weeks there have been a variety of help Haiti emails. Organizations such as Omaha Steaks, Coldwater Creek, Buy.com, Ralph Lauren, Sport Chalet, Overstock.com plus many more have shown their support.

Here are some creative and subject line examples:

Coldwater Creek
Subject Line: Join us in Haiti’s recovery effort.

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