The Email Wars

As an email marketer and an ESP I am always looking at how other ESPs append the footer of an email. So many people HATE having any other brand in their footer around their email, and heck I don’t blame them. Why would I want someone else’s brand on my email campaign. Email does help with branding no matter how many articles of conversations I have with other people. 

But what struck me about this footer was the addition of “Report Abuse” in it. I had to think about it for a few minutes as it felt as if they are asking someone to press it and cause a delivery issue with that IP address. But then I looked a little closer. In essence it is an internal ESP feedback loop that channels the report back to the ESP and, I assume, channels that as a red flag to either their deliverability team or automatically suppresses that address in their account from ever being sent. 

Now if it works in this way I think it is a great idea. Why not ASK them to keep the report in your ecosystem rather than driving it out to the ISP? Right? If you can keep your abuse reports in your own backyard it might just help with keeping your lists clean and your IP reputation even cleaner. 

I am going to test it in some upcoming campaigns to see if it has that impact.

I was forwarded this email from a friend (yes people still forward emails and make them viral) and I was amused at how simple it was. Now typically I would have not thought much about this email IF I was to have found it in my inbox and even might have thought that it was junk or spam. But it was compelling enough to make me want to see what it was all about since someone took the time to send it to me.

Now the address bar is going to give it away a little bit, but you should check it out. Pretty interesting new site and the email directly corresponds to the landing page once the flash loads. So what this showed me is trying something different might at times be good idea. And If you are an eROI Resource Center subscriber or newsletter subscriber you will find that we do different all the time in our creative, copy, subject lines and campaigns. If you have not signed up, you might want to just for the sheer fun we have.

MarketingVox and others seem to think so. And if they are batching and blasting at the increased rates that they report then I think that these marketers are shooting themselves in the foot. I always hate when I get email with the gender focus wrong, emails more than 2 times a week from a brand (unless it is a driven campaign that depends on telling me more of the story each day.

Have these marketers shown that if they send out to everyone as many times as they can produce an email that it actually lifts sales and does not either negatively impact the brand or cause too much list churn?

“In a survey of 174 online retailers, Internet Retailer found nearly half increased the number of monthly emails sent, compared to last year. The DMA reports an 8% increase in the number of emails that stores sent for the week ending October 17, compared to the same week a year earlier.

All told, Forrester forecasts over 158 billion marketing emails will be sent this year — expected to increase 63%, to 258 billion in 2013. As volume rises, consumers seek new ways to evade the wave of what they consider to be spam.

The problem, in part, is relevance. “I am a 32-year-old guy who lives in an urban area with no kids,” Porter said. “In other words, I don’t need blouses, high heels, or kid’s juice boxes.”

Less than 20% of retailer emails are tailored to consumers’ individual needs, even though targeted messages are easier to produce than they were a handful of years ago, says VP Stephanie Miller of market development at Return Path.

But Miller also believes this lazy attitude will evolve, because merely increasing email frequency won’t work in an environment this noisy.”

So you have your email campaign designed. You have sorted your lists to target them with the right offers, images, copy and links. You have made more changes and refinements in your testing and pre-testing, but have you written the best performing subject line yet? And HOW important is it? 

Well IMHO in light of the Sender Name of the email the Subject Line is the second most important. WHY you might think? Well because it is either the first or second thing that we read in the email inbox before making our decision to move forward with an open or send it to the trash. 

Here are my thoughts:

1. Does it inform me or tell me what to expect?

2. Does it make me want to find out what is next? 

3. Is it clear and succinct? 

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Many traditional retailers know that ecommerce is important. Many others still want to help the channel and drive sales to the physical stores. This is great on both sides when an email campaign in a retail situation can give the space in an email to make it actionable at either destination. Online or Offline.

I had the opportunity to talk with two people at Nike this past week and learned more about the channel and how the channel is important to support, but at the same time a brand that sells anything MUST have a retail store online OR it actually erodes the brand credibility. What I mean by this is IF Nike.com did not actually have ecommerce and allow you to shop their products they have found that it would actually impact the sales that their channel partners/retailers do in online sales. Funny finding huh?

Also of interest were the numbers which you might find surprising in total sales that the ecom store for Nike drives. Ready… wait for it… wait for it… less than 1.5% percent of total global sales. Now this number is large, make no doubt of that in the case of Nike, but yet it is a little shocking. Less than 1.5%? Wow. I would have wagered that over 5-7% at least. But then Nike did not build their business to be a consumer direct model, but built all design, manufacturing and distribution to handle the large channel sales. 

Back to the email. This email from J Crew gives you a scannable coupon that you can print and take into the store. Me, believe it or not, I am not a large online shopper unless I am shopping for others. I like to still go into the stores and check things out in person. I find it odd for a person like myself that I live online yet prefer to shop offline. I am sure that I am not all that unique, but this email gives me choices and I like choices. Do you?

Jeff Mills @EROI has a great article in iMedia today. Give it a read. 

Maximize your clicks and conversions by following these guidelines for smarter use of your email’s pre-header and snippet text.

It’s time to take another look at how you’re using that very first line of your email. As your recipients are getting bombarded with (and deleting) more and more messages, this small but valuable section of your email marketing pieces can be the deciding factor in whether your message makes it to your intended audience.

The snippet text displays in the pre-header, which is typically the first line of an email above the main copy or graphical content. It is also the very first sentence in a text-only or mobile email (e.g., on a BlackBerry). Email marketers now recognize this as must-use space when it comes to their email campaigns, but just using it isn’t enough to maximize its potential. You can improve email campaign stats even more by rethinking how you are using this space…..

Read the Full Article on iMedia

Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages

Found at : http://www.useit.com/alertbox/confirmation-email.html

Jakob Nielsen has long been one to watch when it comes to web usability and studies that help us make sense of the world we work in everyday. Sometimes his fresh set of eyes point out some things that we take for granted and open us up to a new way of looking at our habits as email marketers.

This is a summary of the two studies that took part 5 years apart. Interesting to see that in 5 years some things have remained constant. Not that they are good things, but they are opportunities for you and you email marketing efforts.

This is a must read for all email marketers.

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I have long been a fan of Diesel. They are in our face, original and always ready to take a risk with a new marketing initiative. Last month I had the pleasure of getting a campaign for the Diesel XXX Party that was celebrating the 30th Birthday globally. I quickly checked it out and summized that I had to get the crack eROI team on finding out how they pulled this off. 

It was early in the effort but this email made me wonder how it was going to unfold. Scanning the cities that were going to be used to stage this event I noticed NYC. VOILA. We are there with our office in Manhattan… quick call to Chris Masagatani to bring him into the plans. 

Chris and I talked about the email, the landing page and the campaign. I set him off with a Flip camera to document the campaign from start to finish. What I wanted eROI to learn is how email was used as the first touch point and how it caused the event to unfold with little to no other media around it. 

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Much has been written about social media and email. Most people that have “created” an email marketing system have added features to it that they like to say makes it “social media”. Well I want to go on record that adding a Send To a Friend, or a button that allows you to “digg it” or comment on it does not make it social. Email is social media. It is what the majority of the internet users harness for “social” conversations. It is one to one and one to many. 

But all of this being said above, here are what you need to understand in order to make your email marketing campaigns “social”.

I hope from reading my thoughts around the POST method you can understand what you should be thinking about.

POST: People, Objective, Strategy, Technology

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A poll recently released by the Consumer Reports National Research Center shows that 82% of consumers are concerned about their credit card numbers being stolen online, while 72% are concerned that their online behaviors were being tracked and profiled by companies.

Although 68% of consumers have provided personal information in order to access a website, 53% are uncomfortable with internet companies using their email content or browsing history to send relevant ads, and 54% are uncomfortable with third parties collecting information about their online behavior.

The poll revealed that 93% of Americans think internet companies should always ask for permission before using personal information, and 72% want the right to opt out when companies track their online behavior.

Joel Kelsey, policy analyst with Consumers Union, said “Americans are clearly concerned… the vast majority of consumers want more control over their personal information online… “

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I have the priviledge of speaking on 4 topics on digital marketing at DMA 2008 in Las Vegas this week. So far it has been a good start to the week. All the players in the email space are here with booths and signage everywhere. I was happy to see as an industry and economic indicator that the floor was busy and the sessions were well attended. Some people that have been here in recent years past have told me that they don’t feel as if there are as many people here, and I can tell you that from the size of the venue here it would be hard to actually fill it up unless it is the Consumer Electronics show. 

What I did notice that I wanted to share is this: If these people are all direct marketers, why can’t they make their booths pop and get out infront of their target audience at this event. What I mean by this is that so many of the booths could have much more compelling graphics and calls to action. Half of them all feel like they are selling the same thing. I took a walk through trying to decipher what each company did and many of them left me unable to tell. The bigger issue is that was direct marketers one would assume that they would be getting out in front of these people and hustling the asiles. Very few of the folks, even in the email marketers booths were jumping out and bringing people into their spaces for conversations. 

In a year that is giving some people uncertainty I would think that these marketers would be getting aggressive and engaging the audience right there on the spot. Not so much. You need to take this thought to your email campaigns these coming months. IF we have a downturn in consumer spending going into the holiday retail season, you need to be that measure, articulate, engaging brand that uses email to bring people back and have a conversation.

Back to the trenches now. 

Do any of you ever notice the massive footers that are used in some industries for emails? Now I know that heavy footers are the design rage right now, but not in emails. Often times legal departments mandate that the legal terms for financials/investing, contests and regulatory issues need to be there. But do you think that they either build trust or help the email campaigns in any way? 

When I personally see them they are a turn off. They make me lose a little bit of trust, although legal will tell you that there are there to build trust (CYA here) and make sure that no one has other expectations. But why can’t they live as as hyperlink and live on a page on the website? 

I wanted to use an example of the video game industry as eROI has done a lot of work in this space over the past years. I can tell you from the example here that they are ego plays. Everyone wants to have their brand and organization represented in the email somewhere. What value does that bring to the subscriber? None in my opinion. This footer in the video gaming industry is always the longest to approve part of email creative. Is everyone there? Do they all have enough room around them to make all the stake holders happy? These are the questions that get vetted over and over again. 

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Are you ready for the holiday season? Remember when we used to think that it started in November? Well not anymore. Some brands are already talking in email about the holiday season, jumping Halloween and Thanksgiving. So what are you doing to be ready for the surge? 

Here is a study about shoppers attacking earlier.

Chad White reports : 

17% of the retailers I track have made at least one reference to the holiday season already.

Here is his chart from the last holiday season to show you how early it started last year. 

So what, in light of the market downturn and consumer spending fears, do you have planned. This is not a business as usual year in consumer sales. I am not trying to be a “sky is falling” type of person, but those brands and email marketers that do not have a plan together are in for a bad treat. 

What needs to be done? Here is my list:

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What happens when you have preached to people so long to add your email address to their address book so that they are a trusted sender and you now are changing that? Have you gone through this change before? It is wise to alert people prior to this change so that you do not end up in their bulk folder before you make this change. 

Marriott went above and beyond IMHO at announcing this change. Now what I loved the most was the fact that this shows that they value email as a communication channel so much that they did not even try to get a booking out of it. Nice work. Sure they had their find and reserve in the top nav, but that is a typical element in their other programs. They took the road of making sure they they did not lose people as one campaign could do more to lift their program than the long term damage in lost bookings could drive if they added more than one thing to do. 

I am not sure overall from an industry perspective of how many subscribers do take the step to add them to a “safe list” but I would bet that this had some people that had not done so before to take that step now. 

Is this something you use in your programs at the opt in? And if so do you have any data that you would share on subscribers using it? 

For those of you that have a phone, don’t want to haul your laptop around, your company won’t spring for a blackberry or iPhone, or you just want 2 different devices (I fall in this last group carrying both an iPhone and Blackberry for different reasons) here is the new device for you. 

It’s called Peek, and its creators say it’s the world’s first device designed for and dedicated to mobile email. Whereas email-capable smartphones can be bulky as well as complicated, the Peek’s lightweight, slim design makes it easy to take along. Featuring a large colour display and full keypad, the device uses scroll navigation and can be used to access up to three email accounts. Peek offers nationwide coverage throughout the United States and is compatible with most major email providers. Perhaps best of all, using Peek involves no contracts, credit checks or activation fees. To get started, all users need do is enter their e-mail address and password. The device, available online and in Target stores, is priced at USD 99.95, with unlimited emails for USD 19.95 per month. Colours available include black cherry and aqua blue in addition to the more standard charcoal grey.

Might be a challenge for iPhone as well as Android IF you don’t want a mobile browsing experience. Does not really help email from a marketing perspective as you really can’t do anything but read. Looks like the whole team is from Virgin Mobile. Would be great if it only had a web browser not only for marketers but the consumer.

So naming it Peek is right on target. As you can do nothing else but peek and respond.

Learn more about Peek.