A Grassroots Email Strategy Starts to Grow Up
Nov 25 2008
Over the past 10 years, a once little known brand called Zappos has worked hard to build a company based on the principals of customer service and going the extra mile for customers. I have long been a fan of Zappos and what they have accomplished running at full speed, making decisions, embracing the community and having shipments of shoes at my door steps many mornings when I exit the house and head to work.
Many have faulted the way in which a now major (on track to do 1 billion in revenue this year) brand had approached email marketing. They took an entirely different approach to the task of driving revenue by instead using engagement and community from the start to build a successful strategy. Many of you that have bought from Zappos in the past have seen the Zappos Digest enter your inbox either daily or weekly, and found it to be filled with all sorts of content from customers about shoes, feet and issues that they want to discuss. Now notice it is not an email about selling shoes… or is it?
We all love to talk about social media and how great our own customers and evangelists are at selling our products for us. Maybe, just maybe, Zappos was on to something way ahead of the curve. Taking the approach of not selling and helping matches up with their overall business strategy and in the end sells more shoes. I have heard from Tony’s (CEO of Zappos) speech at the last SXSW that customers that buy from Zapppos are 75% more likely to purchase from them again based on the overall experience and not the fact that they saved a few bucks. What sells their products is the fact that they not only ask people to share and comment, and have a dialogue about what they are concerned about, but they listen to what people say.
I have to tell you that I think they have taken the right approach. Now this being said from an email marketing perspective it is not the traditional approach that all of us are used to seeing. It is one that is unconventional and in the end works for them. I would be the first to tell you from the initial feeling I had of getting these emails was that they were missing the boat, but then I would be wrong. After I have had a chance to learn more about them as a business, hear more about what their customers say about them, and see box after box arrive at my own house, that they are running a successful program. Odd I know that I am saying this to so many of you when I slam creative and execution so often. But everything that I do blog about comes from the end perspective of best practices in email marketing. Following what we see to be industry standards, ways to lift a campaign, ways to do it better and ways that we would do it.
But I can honestly say that until you know the full story, see the results, look at the reason and understand the problem, you are just looking at it from one side of the window… the outside.
But here is the kicker that some of you have not yet seen in your inbox… they are changing and doing new things. They are testing new approaches and they are making the right choices on how to move forward in a way that supports their business, is measurable, is thought out, and most importantly meets the expectations and needs of their customers. I was fortunate to see one of these new tests in my own inbox recently and well from a traditional email marketing perspective they are making strides.
Now even with strides it may not be the right approach, but knowing how they are looking at it and hearing about what they want to do, it makes sense. They are being smart and they are going to end up doing some amazing things with their email marketing.
So in the end it seems that we all have somethings to learn:
1. We do not always know what is best for every program
2. Slow testing and intelligent approaches might make the most impact
3. Making changes to a program overnight is one that takes more thought than many email marketers are ready to do.
If I had asked you to redo your entire email marketing program and just pointed out what was in my inbox, you might think I was insane. What I see might not be what everyone sees. What I want might not be what everyone wants. What I think you should do might not meet the needs and expectations of what the other subscribers on your list might want from you.
I can only tell you that in working on so many large and small brand campaigns over the past 10 years at eROI and other places that unless you have the data and the views into a program you will never have the complete picture.
So with that, take my advice, thoughts, reviews and posts with a grain of salt. I am only one person and although I take the high road on doing the best possible work from a design and execution perspective, there are things even I might not know.
Go forth and conquer.
- Posted by Dylan Boyd
- @dtboyd
- at 8:07 AM
Published in Behavioral Marketing, Best Of Email, Best Practices, Brand Marketing, Conversion, E-Mail Marketing, eMail Marketing Optimization
(3 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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November 25th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Dylan Dylan Dylan. Where to start? First off I will always applaud you for taking a stance with the self-confidence and awareness to be able to change your mind. You thrive on a bit of this controversy. That’s cool. I do too.
Let me be clear that I am one who has openly criticized Zappos for their email marketing “efforts” – An Open Letter to Zappos: http://idek.net/PL. You mention that this approach is, in your words, “not an email about selling shoes… or is it?” I’d argue that Zappos current approach to email marketing is not about selling shoes, not about building brand, not about *anything*. It is what it is. Batch and Blast. I don’t think their has been any strategic thought process when it comes to email.
You say, “What sells their products is the fact that they not only ask people to share and comment, and have a dialog about what they are concerned about, but they listen to what people say.” I agree 100%. But…how is this reflected in their email marketing “strategy?”
Now, I’ll give you the point that they are looking to improve. That is great to see. Welcome to 2003.
I’ll also agree that, “…until you know the full story, see the results, look at the reason and understand the problem, you are just looking at it from one side of the window… the outside.” Not many of us *create* the opportunity to look under the hood as you have done.
Love to continue this conversation in person. Maybe in Park City…over a cold beer….on you.
dj
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DJ
First:
I will leave a 6 pack of Old Mil outside in the snow for you in Park City. It should stay cold. Look for the “X” I make for you, it will stand out.
Second:
What I am telling you is not just about Zappos but any email marketing program. Many times you do not have a long history nor an inside look. I don’t in many of the programs I blog about. But when you do have time to learn about them more, understand the culture, the efforts, the success, the challenges and the desires… you then have a chance to cross over in your understanding.
Third:
We are all email snobs. It is our business to be that way. We always want things to be better, bigger, more on target, and kicking complete ass. Yet alas even some of your customers, our customers, and other ESP customers cannot do this. It is always going to be that way. Which is good for you as it might keep you in a job.
In the end it is great to see a team that has built such a brand and revenue stream from just moving as fast as possible. Could you imagine Bronto doing 4X year over year growth? Probably not. Not sure you could imagine what challenges that brings from a culture, execution, and brand perspective.
So happy to see you start to understand the strides and effort they are focusing now. I look forward to your continuing to monitor their progress as I think in 2009 you will see some great things. I only hope that the rest of the email marketers out there get as passionate and focused about their email marketing campaigns as we see Zappos becoming.
And I hear that 2009 is all about change and team work. Time to cross the party line.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
Dylan –
I prefer a nice Porter or Stout, but THE BEAST will work…
I agree with your take on learning more about a company. I’d just caution readers to not use that as an excuse for a poorly executed email marketing campaign. An inside perspective does just that…gives you perspective, compassion, a better understanding. Bad email is bad email. Right?
Again, I agree with your point that we are all email snobs. I worry sometimes that most of my blog posts are dinging marketers for their crappy practices. Like you said, some of them are our own customers. However, I still think it is important for us – you, me, other bloggers, other ESPs – to continue to push marketers to be better. We work hard on this internally, preach it to our own clients, and shout it to the community. We don’t always succeed, but we gotta keep trying.
Finally, I totally love Zappos. I respect almost every aspect of their business – from CEO Tony to their dedication to customers. I love their transparency, use of social media, quirkiness, practice of paying employees to quit, etc. They are a model for what more companies could and should be like.
But…
Zappos needs help with their email marketing. I am stoked to see that this seems to be in the works.
Cross the party line? Not sure what that means, but…
Love the banter. See you in Park City.
dj
——–
Bring your A Game DJ. See you in Utah.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
I don’t track Zappos’ emails, but my 2-cents is that they were using their email program as a social network before social networking really took off. Their emails are an odd duck (and maybe even an ugly duck), but their strategy of using social engagement to drive community interest is very, very smart. They are way ahead of the curve in that regard.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
I love the back and forth guys. (Disclaimer: I don’t buy from zappos or get their emails, but I do love their social media program.)
Fantastic point Dylan, in all our Email Snobbery I think we come down a bit hard on people who may have a well planned out program that they are implementing. So some criticism may not be entirely deserved.
I also agree that providing information and content that subscribers want is paramount. So if you aren’t always selling your product then that’s great. Sometimes a medium can work best when it’s not a sales channel.
So if a company’s Grand Plan isn’t clear to us, perhaps we should go easy.
HOWEVER, and this is a big however, the recipient doesn’t have any insight into this Grand Plan either. So if they aren’t seeing any value out it right now, then it doesn’t matter.
So while we can go back and forth about what value zappos may see out of the program, you can easily see what value *you* as a zappos customer are or aren’t getting out of it.
A well devised Grand Plan won’t leave recipients wanting while they work their way to their goal. Is zappos meeting their clients needs right now? I don’t know. I’ll let you two keep arguing about that.
Btw, I prefer my beer Amber, but we can wait for Email Evolution in Arizona for that.
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Thanks Adam. I will bring the suds to AZ. I prefer gin and tonics in the desert.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
1) I love the conversation [& banter], and am bummed that I will not be in Park City to weigh-in personally.
2) I buy Dylan’s argument that there’s more to an email program than what ends up in the inbox and one needs to look at marketing programs from an integrated perspective.
3) From my perspective, however, Zappos has dropped the ball w/ email big time (see DJ’s post). At the very least, their transactional mail should have been better supporting the goals you mention above (sharing, commenting, promoting dialogue).
I too am glad to see that they are stepping up and making changes. In these times investing in the highest ROI channel out there makes good business sense.
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Great conversation and perspectives guys, wish I could see how the park city brawl goes down =P.
I’ve see job postings for a director of email marketing @ Zappos all over the job sites the last two months. It seems to be a very strategy focused position so perhaps they are looking to beef up the email ops or maybe its just a replacement.
I am a zappos customer but I opted-out of the emails a long time ago from my personal account, they certainly didn’t provide me any value as a consumer. If they had given me targeted shoe specials that would have kept me engaged. I didn’t find any of the extra chatter helpful.
P.S. What is this doing on Zappos?
http://zeta.zappos.com/product/7483598/color/104143
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
It’s all been said before, but I guess I’ll stake my claim/opinion!
I see this a lot with clients- due to manpower, technical skill, etc. they end up executing part of the overall marketing internet, e-marketing strategy well in a moderate sense, but key areas like email aren’t executed well. Almost moreso if they’re launching into social marketing. Direct mail companies tend to get the email strategy area better. So, though I haven’t followed Zappos’ emails, I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffered form web 2.0 malaise: poor email marketing. Mostly just acknowledgements and passwords, notifications, and nothing more. It’s not bad, it’s just a common pitfall. It seems like Zappos is on the forefront of a lot of good things in social marketing, so don’t want to bash them, but am not surprised if DJ sees faults in email marketing, and also not surprised that their overall vision is spot on.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
I’m a Zappos customer, and have been for as long as I can remember (has it really been 10 years?). Before I was an account manager at Bronto, and well before I was an email marketing snob, I have always hated their messages. The stubborn insistence on plain text (tempt me with a picture of some shoes, why don’t ya?), the lack of call-to-action, the same-ness of it all. Every week or so for all those years, I’ve received two product update emails with the same subject line every time – “New [Insert Brand Here] Styles at Zappos.com” – containing nearly identical content week after week. When do you think was the last time I actually opened, much less clicked a link in one of those messages?
I do agree on a lot of the points made above about being on the outside looking in, and their social marketing and community efforts are fantastic. Looking forward to seeing them step into the 21st century in 2009 and maybe I’ll actually open and click-through a message one of these days.
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:16 am
Let’s get over ourselves, eh? It doesn’t matter what we think, it matters what subscribers think. To the extent that the Digest is incredibly progressive in concept, as well as wildly successful *for a portion* of the Zappo’s audience, it is a wonderful program. Love it. Many retailers would be blessed to have such an active and rabid fan base.
But the reality that the Digest doesn’t work for ALL subscribers. Not even MOST. Just as an all promotions program doesn’t work for all subscribers, either.
So to DJ’s point – welcome to 2009. If you want to optimize, you must consider the various segments and interests and aim to create great subscriber experiences for MOST of your subscrcibers, MOST of the time, not just SOME of them, SOMEtimes.
I have had many a conversation with Zappo’s about moving from text (ugly, unformated, long and bulky) to HTML. In the end, we could never find the numbers to support that HTML would make the difference. The dedicated following of the Digest LOVED the clunkiness. But that just brings me back to point number one above.
Thanks, Dylan and all here for the good discussion. I like Guinness ;)
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The good news Steph is that they are moving in this direction already. I have been getting them for the 6pm.com brand and the Zappos brand. They are good. They moved from a home built system to a ESP system last fall. They have an amazing design team in house that is working hard to give the customers better emails and learning every step of the way.
They are going to rock you in 2009.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:14 am
As a billion dollar online enterprise they should be generating $150M to $300M from their email program.
The Digest is innovative and it fits for them.
But there is more they should do to capture the massive business opportunity that is email.
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Thanks Ed. And I think if you keep your eyes peeled you will see where it goes. I will post ones as I get them.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I agree with the above comments that the email, in its current form is visually unappetizing to ME. To Stephanie’s point, if Zappo’s sees response from the emails in their current iteration, making a drastic change, like moving to HTML, may turn off some subscribers that are ardent fans of the all-text emails. HOWEVER, I think Zappo’s can test the waters with HTML by providing the option to their subscribers and then sending a different version based on the subscriber’s preference.
-Kelly