The Email Wars

Folks, this is your time to shine. Are you ready to join eROI and Drink the PUNCH? As we don’t drink Kool Aid here, but rather HI-C Mixed with Everclear… and man does it pack a punch.

And Portland, Oregon is one of the best places from a quality of life, things to do, culture to live in point of view. This place is not fluff, but real people doing great things.

We are growing with great new clients/partners/agencies and work that makes slapping your feet on the floor each AM a joy. And not just email marketing, but amazing campaign sites, mobile and brand work.

Did I mention that you could actually work with me… and the Sales Goat?

We are looking not only for RockStars, but also the band that goes multi-platinum.

Here are the openings we are recruiting: (Position descriptions after the jump)

Senior Account Executive
Account Coordinators

To apply send your resume and details to the address I will supply you offline, but ONLY if you contact me by commenting on this blog and not lurking…. We want people that engage… not watch.

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The Direct Marketing Association’s Email Experience Council recently signed up for the email newsletters of 118 of the top online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot. What we found was that there’s a clear trend toward subscription processes that are quick and easy, and increasingly transparent.

Read the Executive Summary and even join the EEC and get these resource all year long with your membership.

I will stand by my thoughts that the iPhone, although cool, still does not have what it takes to be the blackberry killer. It does not have the email functions that all of us look for when searching for a mobile device to get email in a timely manner. The upsides are browsing and “maybe” buying, but the jury is still out there.

I have played around with them and I still have decided not to get one. Another ad agency owner I know got one and loved it, for a week. Then he emailed me tonight letting me know that he was going out to get a new blackberry too. This way he could get his emails as he expected them while traveling.

From TechCrunch:

iPhone v. BlackBerry: Side By Side, Two Week Comparison

With the Wi-Fi-equipped BlackBerry 8820 coming soon to an AT&T store near you, business folks around the country will be faced with the decision of switching to the trendy new iPhone or upgrading to a more iPhonesque version of their trusty CrackBerry. To determine whether the grass really is greener on the iPhone side of the fence, we have chronicled the experience of a venture capitalist (who wishes to remain anonymous) who has been using an iPhone and a BlackBerry 8800 side-by-side for the past few weeks. His conclusion: despite the overall attractiveness of the iPhone, it lacks too many vital features to replace the BlackBerry as the corporate weapon of choice.

Read the full report

I love press releases and new companies so far this week that are touting video email. Like it has been so easy and the magic bullet has been found. This company (release is below) has one of the scariest landing pages I have ever seen. I think that if I had the time, money and skills available to actually solve the dilemma that we all face of video NOT playing in so many email clients (most use a fake video player with a jump out to a landing/player page when it does not work) that they could have spent… say a few thousand on a good looking corporate site with some brand equity. Maybe they tapped out of cash after 500k spent in research.

But, as you will find, I went to the site to learn more and felt as if I had jumped to a multi-level marketing pitch on what not to do for landing pages and product launches. Judge for yourself, but it is scary.

SendVideoByEmail.com

There are some other solutions out there like AVI Mail that I think have a chance and we have actually tested. Much lower rate of not working AND they provide a detailed spec sheet on the tests they have run.

Release after the jump, IF you still need to read more after looking at the site.

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Here are some resources IF you have audiences that you know are using Blackberry’s. Most of us at eROI are armed with them in our daily war on email delivery, but some of you might not. These are some good resources to use to test for yourself if you don’t know how your emails render on the device.

Trust me, most of the multi-part of TEXT emails I get are bad.

We use the first one a a PC to test sometimes if the devices are not in the office. It is a little tricky to install, but worth the effort.

BlackBerry simulators:
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/downloads/simul
tors.jsp

http://support.vzw.com/swf/blackberry8703/blackberry_87
3e_simulator.htm

MIT Sloan’s article on BlackBerry users’ behavior:
http://mitsloan.mit.edu/newsroom/2006-blackberry.php

Video demonstration on what email looks like on a BlackBerry 8700:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1n7clhSzGM

Video demonstration on what email looks like on a BlackBerry Pearl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM2YFwoJrog

I came across this new web based system that is all about video emails. Now not sure if this is the email 2.0 app we have all been looking for, but I am going to need to test it out. EyeJot is saying that you can now send video email to people from your own computer. Now I have a Apple that allows me to use the built in web cam to capture and send video when I want… but will it always play in other email clients like an Apple will? No. I know this as I have sent video to people and they are not always able to view it.

So will this be the magic bullet? I hope so. But if they have it, why don’t all of the email marketers out there know about it? Seems to be a consumer email play, but if it works., trust me we will all be calling.

Eyejot… ring me up and give me the 411 if this is the cure.

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We have come a long way over the past several months helping to plan the new convergence conference in Portland set for September 6-7. Steve Gehlen, who has successfully organized the Internet Strategy Fourm (2007 was last week and brought FedEx, Yahoo, Robert Scoble and many many others to town to speak was amazing.

This new event Steve has planned is going to be one that will become a MUST attend event. Not only will it bring in some great minds, but also coincides with the NorthwestMusicFest as well as the PICA Time Based Art Festival (TBA). Three events like this over the same time frame is like stars lining up.

If you are going to be anywhere on the West Coast, or have been looking for a reason to get to Portland, Oregon (rated best place to live, work, active people, etc) this might be the perfect storm for you. And September in Oregon is one of the best times ever for weather and the outdoors.

Read Steve’s note on the Invergence 2007 event after the jump and visit the new holding blog put up leading to the event

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I am soooo done with this “Death of email thing”. Hell News.com emailed me this article, and was fortunate I have yet to take my Outlook out into the woods and put a bullet in it’s head… damn email.

Come on now. Why are all these folks trying to kill off email every other week? This is ridiculous. We have not stopped using email. I also use RSS, blogs, video, mobile, social media, etc, etc etc.

Vernacular is changing, but email is here for a while, so let’s do it right. I have a ton of “kids” that work here and I can tell you that they are still living in email while Twittering, MySpacing, Im’ing, tagging, etc.

Email: Dead to Millennials from CNET News.com

For today’s teenagers, email has been replaced by social networking. Teens and analysts agree that kids think email is more suited to keeping up professional relationships or communicating with adults.

Kids today are more likely to check MySpace or Facebook than email. For many adults, email is what we’re used to–it keeps things simple and professional. But for kids, who grew up with instant messaging, voice-over-IP, text messaging and email, they want to see these services integrated. To a certain extent, each of these can be wrapped up in a social network, along with the ability to add photos, videos and of course, new friends and networks.

The demands of the so-called “Millenial” generation may be a sign of things to come. Social networks are the most potent new rival to e-mail, especially when you consider that tens of millions of members log onto MySpace and Facebook several times a day. It’s even scarier to consider what happens to email if virtual worlds like Gaia Online knock social networks down a rung on the Web communication food chain.

Read the whole story…

Do you think that the iPhone is driving the thoughts around this? Most of us in the business world have been using mobile email for years and years with Blackberries and Treos. Text messaging has been the norm in the consumer space, so will devices like the curve and iPhone (which are targeted to the consumer market) help push this over the top?

I think we will see a shift, and yes it will change how people read and react to emails, but it might actually open up some more opportunities when we look at time/day and message.

Mobile Email By Consumers To Take Off, Says Frost & Sullivan by Les Luchter of MediaPost
In a white paper prepared by Frost & Sullivan for open source firm Funambol, mobile email is projected to grow 24% annually for the next four years–fueled by growth over everyday cell phones.

Read the whole story…

If you were ALL only an EEC Member, you could be joining a behind the scenes FTC meeting wrap up call this Wed. There is still time….

www.emailexperience.org

From Ken Magill: This Time, Marketing Wasn’t in the Crosshairs

Though last week’s Federal Trade Commission spam summit was a relatively sleepy affair, there was one major positive development for marketers: For once, they weren’t under fire.

The agenda and tone of last week’s event compared to a similar one four years ago were evidence of how drastically the relationship between marketers and inbox providers has changed.

Read Ken’s Full Article

Sniff Sniff, Weep Weep….

You should read this article just to understand why so many of these scumbags are doing it. Not rocket science to guess it on your own… the Benjamins ($100). I read this and it was interesting, but this guy wanted me to feel bad for him that he was “trapped” in the behavoir. I have an idea, how about you come down to my office, or me to your home (just call) and I will bring an electric cattle prod and a bucket to fill with water for you to stand in.

I bet we can break you pretty fast of this “behavoiral” flaw. Maybe that was the old Army Drill Sergeant coming out in me there.. but that is about as bad as I feel for him.

Read More

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An update from the Email Insiders on this same Issue can be found here

I love it when I get timely emails from brands that I often interact with. Often times if I was to get a survey like this a week or two later, or even one that asked me to take a survey that had nothing to do with what I was neither interested in nor relevant, they are not getting my time.

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But when I get follow ups from behavioral or shopping experiences that are not immediate (as that is a little creepy not only to me but to most consumers) I want to help and participate.

Could you drive more community feedback and participation with surveys or even just timely emails based on what a customer did? Even a follow up to an order after it arrives not only brings me into your fold, but gives you timely and valuable consumer thought data to help grow your marketing and email communications.

I want to see more of your hammer this home with your brands and clients.

I was in a discussion this week with a handful of email marketers about email and IF it was a sexy “digital” tool. I know that email is really seen by many companies as a standard and not really innovative technology. But let’s think about that idea a little more.

What application could people not live without online?

What holds the web and communication at a one to one level together?

What method is use to launch contests, drive buzz, grow word of mouth and develop databases of people that want to interact or have an experience with your product?

No it is not mobile, nor RSS, now a sexy GUI Widget… but email.

The reason that many marketers or agencies are not leading with email as it is old and not sexy to them. But they all use it in everything they do and launch online. Without it we would be holding conversations in a whole other way. And winning new clients in some many pitches does not come down to: email will drive this to new heights. But in the end, they are wrong and place email as an after thought or 50th slide in a pitch deck.

And why is this? Because so many agencies don;t get email, aren’t good at it, and do not have people in house with the experience needed to make it pop. I know all of you do and that you get it.

Email is not dead and is not dying. It is the glue.

While Becker Surf does a great job changing up email creative, this new look really helps me since they do not target by gender or by past shopping behaviors. (at least that I am aware of). But this clean new look focuses on their main call to action or promotion, but then below lets me select by gender what I want to drill into.

My lesson in the wars on email today is: If you cannot have a preference center with your database or email marketing platform (hey try eROI -shameless plug) then present choices. At least you don’t run the route that so many other consumer clothing vendors do of not showing me content that is relevant. Be relevant to everyone if you have to use the shotgun approach to email marketing.

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Do you find dealing with email boring? Would your day be brighter if your email was rendered as characters in a SecondLife style universe, complete with spam eating sharks? Were you dropped on your head as a child? Introducing 3D Mailbox.

This is plain horrible. If email needed a 2.0… this is not it.

Read the full review