This is a free sew along and all that you need to do to join in is tune into my blog here every Monday for the weekly tutorials for one or two blocks in the quilt. I am, in fact, going to pass. MILDEWY is an OK kind of icky, though the clue was ickier (and much vaguer) than it needed to be (1A: Fungus-filled, maybe).But it was really KIDNEY STONE that killed the vibe for me, very early on. The best blogs in the world are tracked and ranked daily by our unique algorithm.

Update on Majors and Coaching

2020.09.09 -

Majors

When we announced the Rio Major, we were excited to bring a CS:GO Major to one of Counter-Strike’s most passionate fan bases. At the time, we couldn’t have imagined the global challenges that have limited live events throughout 2020.

We’re not going to ask players and fans to risk their health in order to attend a Major while the pandemic still poses a threat to travelers. Therefore, we have made the painful decision to cancel the November Major.

So, what’s the plan? First, we’re going to hold off on scheduling Majors until, at a minimum, Regional Major Ranking (RMR) LAN events are safe to hold around the world. Until then, we expect to continue to hold online RMR events to keep track of the best teams in each region.

Coaching

Recently we’ve been made aware that several coaches of professional CS:GO teams exploited a bug in the game in order to gain an advantage over their opponents. It is unfortunate and frustrating that we did not respond to this bug sooner. But bugs are the reality of software—and until they are resolved, we need to be able to trust players and coaches.

We won’t spend much time here reiterating our stance on the importance of integrity in CS:GO matches. At a minimum, we expect that players and coaches will play by the rules, and immediately pause the match and alert tournament admins if they know of an issue that may give them (or an opponent) an unfair advantage.

Any teams that were disqualified for exploiting this bug during an RMR event will have their RMR points reset.

As for taking action against individual coaches, we’re going to wait until we get a complete picture of the extent of the bug abuse and the punishments handed down by third parties. Regardless of those penalties, mid-match coaching will always be a tempting opportunity for some teams to violate the integrity of the match. So we may also consider limitations to coaching.

We’re looking forward to getting LAN events started again, and hope that we can all find a safe way to do it soon.

When it comes to analysing the success/failure of an email marketing campaign, there are many metrics to consider.

With this in mind, we have foregone the traditional listicle format of ranking things. Instead, we have chosen to identify and then list, in no particular order, the most widely useful metrics available.

So, without further ado, we present,

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1) Total opens

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This one is pretty simple. How many people actually opened the emails we sent out?

This metric can give us good general insight into the relevance of our mailing list and the effectiveness of our subject lines.

Once opened, it’s time for the body of the email to do its work.

2) Open rate

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If we weigh our total number of opens against our total number of emails sent out, we get our open rate. This can give us a pretty good indication of how effective our email subject lines really are…

If people are receiving our emails, but the percentage that are opening them is too low, we might need some help getting our subject lines up to speed.

3) Average opens per person (AOPP)

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If we want to take a deeper look at our open rates to measure overall email engagement, average opens per person can clear the picture up a bit more.

This metric measures how many emails each person on our mailing list is opening against the number of emails we have sent that person.

If people are opening a high percentage of the emails we are sending them, they can be considered to be highly engaged, and we can give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done.

If the percentage is low, then we know that we really aren’t accomplishing much, since we are not engaging that person in a meaningful way.

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4) Click rate

This metric, also known as click-through Rate (CTR), measures the number of people who have opened our email and then clicked on a URL link in the email to view the website of the product/service it directs to.

Click rate is very effective when attempting to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the content in an email marketing campaign. It tells us the exact number of people who clicked on the link associated with the campaign, based on what they read in the email they received.

From there, it is up to the website to close the sale.

5) Click to open rate (CTR)

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The click to open rate gives a different kind of insight into how effective the total package of a specific marketing email actually is.

CTOR measures the click-through rate against the total number of opens. This tells us what percentage of people who opened the email were persuaded to click through to our website.

6) Hard bounces

If we send out an email and it is permanently undeliverable to the email address we used, that’s a hard bounce. We now know that email address is invalid and it can be taken off our mailing list.

7) Soft bounces

If our email is undeliverable due to a temporary issue, for example a full inbox, that’s a soft bounce. It means we need to monitor that address and if the issue persists, we can consider removing the address from our mailing list.

8) Conversion rate

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The conversion rate is the percentage of email recipients that click on a link in the email and then go on to complete a desired action. These desired actions or conversions occur when a recipient interacts with a company in a meaningful way, for example requesting more information or purchasing a product/service from us.

9) Abuse Reports

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An abuse report is when someone on our mailing list decides to report our email as “spam”. Realistically, this is completely unavoidable, and so long as there are not extremely high numbers of such reports, this can be filed under “The cost of doing business”.

If, however, the numbers of abuse reports are unusually high, we might want to re-think our approach, or get some professional help with our strategy.

10) Email revenue

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As DJ Quik famously remarked in his song “Dollaz and Sense”- “If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense.”

Email revenue is the total monetary value of the sales generated by our email marketing campaign. If it isn’t generating revenue, we are doing something wrong, and we could probably use a hand. In fact, even if we are already generating revenue through email marketing, wouldn’t we rather generate some more?

In one awesome email campaign, Phrasee’s subject line generation technology delivered a 417% revenue increase versus the human written subject lines they had been using previously.

11) Average revenue per email sent (ARPES)

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Knowing our total email revenue can give us a pretty good indication of whether or not our email marketing campaign is producing results, but exactly how good are the results really?

Average revenue per email sent can help us measure the efficiency of our efforts, and help us to focus our efforts by identifying how much money is generated each time we send an email to someone on our mailing list.

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If we can measure our efficiency in this way, and find ways to generate more income per email sent, our email marketing campaigns will steadily become more successful.

We here at Phrasee recently delivered a client a 22.7% increase on this sum, which translates to a massive improvement in the efficiency of that client’s email marketing strategy.

When this is done well, we will conduct more business and make more money.

And isn’t that really the whole point?

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The email marketing strategy playbook for 2021

With 2021 just around the corner, is your email marketing strategy ready? From personalization to segmentation and optimization to tracking, we share best practices for building an effective email marketing strategy.