The Daily Golden Nuggets are not a forum for us to ever try to sell you anything. This is Nugget #495 and we've always provided straight forward, actionable information. For a brief moment we need to deviate from that and tell you about something exciting happening over here.
We'd like to Open Source our website software. While many jewelers have set up their website using Weebly, WordPress, Joomla, Magento, and many others, our team over here developed an extremely light, easy to use, and extraordinarily powerful CMS. We call it the Junior CMS and we've been providing it to our paying customers for the last year.
We'd like to give it away to the entire world, and the entire jewelry industry. But in order to do that, we need to raise the money to pay the developers to convert it to Open Source.
We've set up a fundraising website, a Facebook page, and a website to explain it all. We need your help spreading the word. Somewhere out there are backers willing to give us a few golden nuggets of financial support. It might not be you, but you might know someone, so please share these links to your friends...
Here are the websites:
Fundraising website: http://thejrcms.com/1
CMS website: http://www.thejuniorcms.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thejuniorcms
Now on to the Gold of today's Nugget...
Over the last few months or so we've been telling all our readers that if you intend on sending emails during the holiday season then it's important to send regular email campaigns throughout the year. There's a complicated reason behind this, but we'll try to boil it down for you.
The company ReturnPath published a report on March 7, 2012 with their own email research finding for the months of July 2011 through December 2011. They monitored 1.1 million messages, 14 ISPs, and 34 countries around the globe.
Their goal was to see how deliverable emails were, and how many spam messages were getting through to email accounts. What they found is that delivery rates are on the decline.
"Delivery Rates" are different than "Open Rates" because it refers to how many non-spam emails arrive in your inbox. Historically, 1 in 5 legitimate emails were being delivered to the spam folder or blocked somehow.
It's these losses in emails that Return Path is monitoring across several different industries.
In the second half of 2011 Return Path saw the deliverability for the retail industry drop to 76.5%. They didn't measure the jewelry industry specifically, but you guys were lumped in there. To put it differently, during peak times of the year when email marketing is on the rise, only 3 of every 4 emails you send are reaching the person you send to.
Why are 1 in 4 emails being blocked? After we took a good look at their research results we realize that individual ISPs are starting to filter out email marketing attempts by people who only send emails in December.
Sure it sounds unfair, but from their point of view they are protecting their users from potential phishing and virus emails. During the holiday season people don't just give gifts. There are also many "Grinchs" out there trying to steal your holiday cheer away through bogus emails.
Automated systems know if your email address has previously sent emails, and they will "protect" their users against unknown senders.
That's the boiled down version of what's happening. It's more complicated than what is being said here, but the important point is to send emails at least once a month throughout the year.
