Many people are promoting social sharing today in their systems, but before you go down the path for a feature you should give it a try. With developing some ideas on how to place it, where to place it, and what your goals are of using it you can get started fairly quick. Don’t over think it. It is a test. But do have some clear goals or hypothesis in mind to be watching. It is really easy to test and learn how it works for you.

I would suggest starting at the KEY point in the email. Is is a sale, deal, new article, study, event, webinar… what is it. Start by testing the main focus of the email. Give it some time to see how it works. If you are using social sharing through other means like placing links into these ecosystems manually, make sure that you are using different links in order to track them as separate efforts.

Here are the simple codes to use:

Facebook Share Button Code

Here is the Facebook share code, which can also be found at http://www.facebook.com/share_partners.php/.

<script type="text/javascript">
     function fbs_click() {
	u=location.href;
	t=document.title;
	window.open('http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(u)+'&t='+encodeURIComponent(t),'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=626,height=436');
	return false;
     }
</script>
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=LINK_GOES_HERE" onclick="return fbs_click()" target="_blank">
    <img src="ADD_IMAGE_URL_HERE" alt="Share on Facebook" />
</a>

Twitter Share Button Code

Here is the Twitter share code:

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=Currently reading: LINK_GOES_HERE" title="Click to share this post on Twitter">
    <img src="ADD_IMAGE_URL_HERE" alt="Share on Twitter" />
</a>

LinkedIn Share Button Code

Here is the LinkedIn share code, which can also be found at http://developer.linkedin.com/docs/DOC-1075.

<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url={articleUrl}&title={articleTitle}&summary={articleSummary}&source={articleSource}" target="_blank">
    <img src="ADD_IMAGE_URL_HERE" />
</a>

Now your challenge is to test some of your content specific (deals, articles, events) in each newsletter or email campaigns. Don’t try to overshare and give everything in the email the ability – but selective choose 1-3 areas depending on the campaign and test them. These can be used in your emails as well as used on landing pages associated with the campaigns as well.

Start simple, refine and expand.

One other thing I would suggest is to use a URL shortening service like Bit.ly or Ar.gy to track how they are used and spread across the web. Use a different one for each of the above links and medias (LI/FB/TW).

Now go get em.

Article Overview:

National Geographic asks for your preferences, your profile, your desire for each email type, and, most importantly, your permission
Timberland’s emails stand out due to brand consistency, large calls-to-action, clarity of messaging, and easy-to-measure creative tests
Banana Republic has stepped into its own in testing, experimenting, and being different
Rethinking “best practices”

What is “right”? Is there a correct way? Do best practices always work?
The answer to these and almost every other question in email marketing is, “It depends.” I know it’s a cop-out of an answer, but in all honesty, there is no right answer. There’s no global best practice that makes your campaign stats jump, no design layout that wins every time. It takes constant trying, tweaking, analyzing, and risk-taking. Calculated and meticulous risk-taking, I might add. And yes, in the end there is no “right,” only good job, mission accomplished, and what’s next?
Yet over the years of not just observing thousands of email campaigns but also creating them, I have weeded through the good and the bad to find those brands that are marketing in ways that move audiences and drive results. This isn’t about presenting you with empirical campaign data. This is about what works for me, and why.

Here are seven brands that are doing it right.
Read the full article

Why not use it in a Welcome campaign? What an ideal point to introduce it. If social media is a prime part of your overall digital marketing you need to make sure it is out in front of them. And adding not forcing social media introductions in a welcome campaign work well. These touch points are going to be one of your highest performing campaigns EVER so choose your focus wisely. If you have other goals do not make social front and center, but do introduce it in.If you have read this blog for any time at all, seen me speak, or worked with me on your campaigns you know how important I find welcome emails to be in a program.

In looking at the Community site we built for Wacom (now 3 generations/versions in) for PenScrappers we made sure it was part of the email template in a way that stood out but did not steal the attention of the goals of getting started and exploring content. It is a light way to include it in the flow of the email and actually becomes a nice way to leave it as an expected element in future emails.

When working with Banfield they wanted to use email to introduce their subscribers to what they were doing in three social media channels. Now instead of just saying follow us/friend us they choose to add some value around what they were doing in these channels and showing a little of each in a way that reveals what is going on while leaving a little bit behind the curtain to help to engage the click. When you put some context and show what they might be interested in adding to the social tools their subscribers were already using, they actually help to build value and a story as to why it might be something or somewhere they would want to engage. People LOVE their pets and giving content that helps them with these relationships they cherish helps to solidify the approach.

With a new branded entertainment game show/interactive game we built for Starlicious this year (now don’t go losing yourself for the next 2 hours catching up with celebrity gossip and playing for prizes) we used a combination of the survey after we published a majority of the shows to then engage with the social channels. When introducing a new brand/property it is important to first build the relationship before asking them to take some steps that might not make sense. If you are to simply tell people to jump in and engage in these social channels without proving the value of your content you simply create a reason for churn. And the goal is not a constant battle for new points of engagement, but prolonged engagement that supports the building/continuing of relationships.

We also did something a little different by introducing one of their brand partners, Gain, as the channel for the Facebook relationship, as they have commitment to the channel and content to support it. Why bit off more than you can chew? It is better to focus on building and supporting one than to try to take on everything. Being fortunate to have a partner to not only promote but tie in and support benefits everyone with this method/approach.

So how are you tackling your company’s approach to integration, introduction, and value positioning by using email to support your social programs. There are many ways to do it, and I am not saying that we always do it right, but hopefully these are three examples that might help you think about how it might work for you and your email subscribers in a positive way. Happy Tweeting.

Here is an older version from earlier this year that was okay, but the offer and all the BLUE for the hotel locations made me feel as if there was not anything more important than just a transaction. Each of the campaigns was very focused on them talking to me not having a conversation with me. Now this is not all that bad but with the new changes they have made some improvements that make me feel like they are giving me some better information as to who they are, what I might get and why I would look at a stay there. Before they did not have any social inclusion in their programs and not they have added it to the headers along with better text pre-headers that do not add too many pixels to the header pushing content down as their past layouts did talking about no image and add it to your address book. They have made the jump to a tight format that is appealing on all levels.

The funny thing is that it is not a major change in the overall information itself, but the color changes, information architecture and flow works so much better to make the content work. The inclusion of easy to read options (like mobile), occasion marketing (gets me thinking about when I could stay there) and the notions of escaping to Florida are things that are still transactional in premise but do not feel as forced as they might have before in the color layouts.

Now although they have made me happier with mobile web access and not an app (not everyone needs an app I will go on record on this over and over again) they have a little work left to do. The main one is the view as mobile version of the email. It might be the longest text email I have ever seen in my life. They need to look at changing this to either be a real mobile version or simply place some thought into what content really needs to be there. The last 2000 plus pixels listing all of their locations does not need to be there. I am presumably on a mobile device so a simple link to find these locations is all that is truly needed. Thinking through a mobile version if you offer one should be on your hit list. Mobile version does not mean text version. It means one that is viewable and actionable on a mobile device. Now I know that there are some that do not show images, but no one is going to scroll 50 click wheels down to go through all of these listing.

Hotel Indigo, you have come a long way and I am happy with the progress. My only challenge to you now it to starting thinking about usability with mobile/text versions. I know you can do it and it just might get this email snob to find one to stay at soon.

We have had the pleasure of working with OK! Magazine  and a host of other magazine publishers and I wanted to share with you how some of them our email marketing automation engines to gather content, produce a newsletter and get it out to their subscriber bases in record time.

Knowing from years of writing, producing and executing on email marketing newsletters and campaigns, we developed a platform extension a few years back that helped us to focus on the content production. After all the creation of the content is often the thing that holds back a newsletter or campaign from getting out the door on time. When you can place your energy on your job in publishing of updating the content so that you are the first to publish and not worry about the curation of the content in order to produce the email you can have more time to do your job.

We went to the drawing board a few years back with first RSS and then a Wordpress plugin that allowed content producers and publishers to continue to spend their time writing and curating on their sites, blogs and web properties while our engines grabbed the content, arranged it, moved it into custom email layouts and distributed it automatically to their subscriber lists. Sounds easy right and a no brainer. But it took a little work to get it right.

Content always has formatting issues and images sometimes blow up in emails, so taking the time to make sure that these engines could grab and format HTML and text versions (and now even mobile versions) took a little testing and fine tuning. We put all the work on our shoulders so that clients that work with us need not to worry about it. These two engines can effortlessly grab content from custom feeds, regular RSS feeds, or even from posts and assets tagged in the Wordpress engine to build beautiful and timely communications.

We have our team working on some new engines that you might see in the coming months that will add even more integration with other platforms, CRM systems, social media platforms, ecommerce engines and more. So keep your eyes out if you are looking out for ways to make your job easier and the email you send out work for you and your subscribers instead of you or your team working to produce them.

Is humor always transferable country to country OR always right? So many brands have gotten in some sort of trouble in years past, but none of them have been liquor brands that I know of. We kind of expect them to push it a little further than most. And 42 Below is definitely doing that.

First the opt-in location is titled the “Hot Spam Injection”. I think we could stop right there with that one but it is only the entrance to this rabbit hole. They then follow with this disclaimer copy, “I want to receive life changing information on 42BELOW products & events! I understand that your Spam-Bot technology will relentlessly flood my in-box fast and effectively with amazing emails.” An animated gif to the right showing odd folks in states of lubricated celebrity helps to set the scene.

I am quite sure that even in jest this might hold people back from opting in. Humor is good while it is on brand but this might be too far for some people they are trying to reach. They have a great on-page confirmation message  giving instant gratification, as well as an age gate that worked too. If you are going to go this far you might as well go all the way.

On a better note they are actually asking for six categories of content filtering in the subscription form about the types of emails they might send or the content that may be included. It is good to see that beyond just having a funny site and opt-in format they are actually taking the steps to hold a relevant conversation.

But on the same page they are also CLEARLY making the unsubscribe available under the premise of “Plagued”. Once again I see the humor, but this immediately makes me think that I might be back here hitting this button and praying that they will actually release me from their grasp.

So far I have yet to receive a welcome email, a thank you email, or even my first campaign email from them. If they got people to opt in using that messaging then they have them on the hook and should be using each touch point as an opportunity to deliver on the brand promise and humor. By delaying 2 weeks so far I have actually started to not expect them in my inbox. I think that often brands that are not doing immediate or lifecycle marketing are missing an opportunity to strengthen their relationships and hit a few home runs out of the park. When a month or longer goes by I have all but forgotten about you and your brand.

Keep the humor going and keep the engagement happening out of the gates. Don’t delay those immediate touches. With something like this as your experience you need to not only set the stage but deliver on the brand promise as soon as possible or start to see the churn and your efforts go down the drain.

We have seen it used for a long time for whitelisting, viewing as a web page, and even unsubscribing; but the future of the pre-header is much greater in your email marketing campaigns than the old school elements. When used properly pre-headers truly allow you to give an overview of the content contained in the email for quick scanning, links to offers, links to mobile versions, couponing, and also access to alternate versions of an email. The last being what I wanted to share with you in the second example.

Looking at the Hotel Indigo header you can see how they are using the text pre-header to focus on loyalty points as well as booking a room on your “Smart Phone” which I assume means your mobile device. I mean, who carries a “Dumb Phone” today? But to expand on the header use they have allowed a lot of information while still allowing for a compact header that does not force content to render lower in the preview pane. I like their inclusion of the old standbys but also love how they have added social and the most important thing that is often hidden in emails, a phone number.

But what about using the pre-header to test gender based segmentation? Or alternate email segmentations? Is it worth a test? Would you be able to not only deploy a concept like this but also track it? Those are the two factors that might be at work for some marketers.

So many people create multiple versions of email to target the supposed audience. Well, sometimes you might not hit the nail on the head, so why not use the pre-header to share alternate versions. After all, you have built them so why hide them? I know many emails from retailers that I have received over the years that are not on target from a gender perspective. Did they have another version or were they just lazy? Did they not have the right information based on past purchases when I was shopping for my wife, mother, or a friend? Data can only take you so far. Sure you are targeting based on the profile information you have, but what if it is not the right information? That’s a bad customer experience.

So why not try using the pre-header to give them an option? Now, I do not have the data on how this particular campaign performed, but I found it to be a great test on how we might think outside of the box on using it to open up our marketing segmentation. And if you are spending the time to build them you might as well leverage them. Another perk that this could open up is if they are forwarded on to someone else and the gender link opens up a new exposure point for you that you did not plan on.

If you are still simply relying on the default pre-header your email service provider adds to your emails, I think it is time that you add it to your list of things to do better in 2010.

What are your thoughts on how to use it? Love to hear your ideas or see some examples.

There is a movement due to the growth of the mobile device market to use more single column image driven layouts. While this a good strategy to simply think about how to best render on the device, does it fit the real understanding of what marketers really know about the devices? In a recent survey we are just completing, we learned that many of the marketers feel that mobile design and rendering is important, while the majority of them still do not know what percentage of their readers are actually checking content on mobile devices. We will all get there, but it will take time. So instead of designing for the what if, think about designing around the content and messaging you have to work with. Let the content drive the layout and design. If you are coding these using best practices then your versions (html, text, mobile, etc) will fall into place.

Where to start? Start with the assets you have control of and work forward from there. Designing simply to fit a layout takes too much time and effort for the end result. Controlling time, costs and resources is paramount in our world today.

I have a version of an email we coded from last year that fits this approach that I want to share. Sure, it’s a little radical being that we did a horizontal approach, but the content drove the layouts with the business goals supported by the the content positioning. I featured the horizontal version of this email in a past post about wide format emails. But I never share the vertical approach that ended up being used.

So let’s look at them in order to frame this conversation.

We had a magazine layout to begin with, which does not lend itself well for an email. But in looking at the visual assets and goals of the campaign, we took the assets apart in order to find attributes that we could format to help tell the story of why this was an important thing to be a part of. It was something that was special and not going to be available forever. We needed to communicate the importance and value of the content while driving the action to want to get something here you could not find anywhere else.

Notice how we used the copy size to clearly communicate the message. Font colors and sizes help to quickly read the email while not needed to spend a day reading the actual content. I know we all love copy, but in truth many people never spend long enough reading an email to focus on too much copy. Start at the top level and work down. Understand (sorry here copywriters) that the copy is often secondary to the the headlines, images and calls to action. Build to scan and hook. Add copy to help push the point if you got them past those first few important decision-making seconds.

Using the blue bars we were also able to focus on the messaging in a way that made the program attributes clearly stand out from the images as well.

But then we took those assets and flipped them to see how they would work in a horizontal layout. Sure vertical is what we are all used to, but at times flipping an email can help it to stand out and give you a few more seconds with your audience than you’d get with an email they’re used to. Sure it sounds a little contradictory but mixing it up from time to time can make an impact. Past horizontal formats we have tried have actually outperformed in the open, click, and conversion rates based on the fact that they make the audience pause to engage with the email.

So here is what it looked like when we took the goals and creative assets. Radically different in the presentation method, but the content informed the design direction.

As you can see (click on the image to view a larger format), we had to approach some things differently to accommodate the format. We had to add multiple call to action buttons (due to the side scroll that could hide the last one as you move through the panes), and we simplified the blue bar to highlight the  important points of the content.  It was incredibly important to test this version in multiple email clients for both iPhone and Android. We had to make sure that the  scrolling worked from a practical standpoint, as well as a content standpoint.

I hope that this example gives you some fodder to try some different approaches that serve your content, instead of trying to make it all fit in a template when it does not make sense.

A great way to start with this is to get back to basics and use rapid prototyping methods with wireframes first. Using active (coded) wireframes can allow you to see how things work before you add in the copy and images. Fine tuning our wireframes often helps us with email layout ideas when looking for fresh, surprising approaches to lift engagement.

According to Comscore.com’s recent reports on mobile device usage, the U.S market grew from 9.2 million users in 2008 to 23.8 million in 2009. And it’s not just the 18 – 35-year-old demographic using mobile.

Gartner predicts that by 2013 mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide, exceeding 1.82 billion units. They also predict mobile phone penetration will reach 90% of the world and 6.5 billion mobile connections by 2014.

While almost all sites can be viewed on a mobile device (aside from sites created entirely in Flash), the experience can be unintuitive at best and frustrating at worst, as most “mobile” sites as they exist today weren’t built with the mobile user in mind. Case in point: the typical site width is 960 pixels. The iPhone is only 320. Only two-thirds of the information can be seen from a mobile device. (while the iPad has changed this – still only over 700K sold – and growing)

So where do you start? Here are some important questions agencies and brands should be asking:

1. What are the goals for my website and who are we trying to attract and engage?

2. Based on my goals and audience, does a mobile presence matter?

3. Which mobile devices are visitors using to view my website?

4. Can I effectively accomplish my goals with one site that can be used by mobile devices but is not designed for it?

Apps are great when they fulfill a need or surprise the user. But not all brands truly need a mobile app.

As recently reported in Read Write Web, some industry experts are predicting that the mobile web is going to be centered on cross-platform browser-based mobile websites, rather than apps built for mobile platforms.

Some tips for killer mobile sites? Make sure your site is finger-friendly and lightweight. That it loads quickly over a cellular network. Focus on the user experience and your marketing goals.

And don’t ignore integration with email marketing. We know consumers aren’t just checking email on their desktop or laptop. It’s more important than ever to revisit email best practices – particularly rendering, readability, action paths, ability to complete goals, and need for a mobile version of your website, blog, ecommerce site, or simply a clean and simple mobile version of the content you are presenting.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a tip: Check out WordPress, which allows you to leverage many of the development community’s plugins to create built-in mobile versions of your sites or campaigns.

The good news is most agencies and brands are in the same boat this point so there is time to explore, plan and react. But the clock is ticking….

For more tips on leveraging the mobile web, check out eROI’s newest white paper, which details the progression of three mobile sites from Wacom Technology Corp., Banfield Pet Hospital and a web application called Moonit.com. (note some of the sites REQUIRE you to be on a mobile device and may default to web version)

But what caught me the past few weeks was seeing two leaders in social media (AddThis and Twitter) fail to use it at all in their most recent email newsletters. Odd I thought as they are witnessing as a use case marketers embracing it everywhere and using their platforms and tools why would they not be implementing it themselves?

Are we all just fools for thinking (with proof) that adding social media integration to email is the right thing to do? Have we all simply just followed each other down the social media rabbit hole? Or did the people in charge of email marketing in these two referenced companies simply forget or not understand how to use email marketing with a 1-2 punch of social sharing?

Rest assured that I feel it is the latter. The fact that they did not use it in their own email campaigns simply shows me that maybe they might have not taken the time to understand how email marketing works as a social driver. But Twitter WHY the text only email and the Unfriendly (bulkr) in the sending email address? Seems you guys are all about connections and the brand attributes you have created and odd you choose not to use them in an email campaign. I also found it as quite a surprise that they also choose not to follow Can Spam compliance by leaving a physical mailing address off the email as well. Is the location of the office top secret? (According to Google it is here – which says it is top secret from Street View) Do they run outside of compliance with the Act? I am happy to drop by and give a 30 minute crash course on the basics if they would like – and in trade they cold give me 30 minutes of their knowledge.

Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and look for them using it next time around. I would wager that someone there noted it as well and they will correct it. But I could be over zealous and wrong with this thought… time will tell. Or do they know something more than we know as email marketers?

Have you or are you using it in combination with your email marketing? Is it working for you? Love to hear from you and see any examples and results you might want to share.