The Email Wars

If you missed the most thrilling show in town last week in Miami at the EEC 2010 Conference, don’t fret I made sure to video them so that you can see how it went down. Three agencies took the stage to show off their best efforts at email stardom, redesigning three emails chosen by fellow Email Evolution Conference attendees. Watch as each agency busted out their best moves and unveiled their email redesigns. Watch as the votes were tallied by a live text vote for each round’s winner. Lisa Harmon from Smith-Harmon praised and critiqued the contenders, plus she dished out her own email diva tips. When all is said and done, though, the winner is chosen.

Round One: USAA Teen Checking Campaign

Round Two: National Geographic Kids Magazine

Lots of best practices and ideas were brought to the table and the votes were cast. Who won? Guess you will have to watch and see.

Which agency will be the next Email Idol?

Moderator: Lisa Harmon, Director, Creative Services, Smith-Harmon, a Responsys Company
Panelists: Sam White, Creative Director, eROI
Jim Spence, Designer, Smith-Harmon, a Responsys Company
Mike Corak, Director of Interactive Services, Mighty Interactive

As a massive fan of email subscription and preference centers when it comes to email marketing I think that I stumbled on to the Holy Grail of email opt in pages. I was both amazed at the depth of this WSJ email opt in page while at the same time floored at the complexity and breadth of what they had to present. I had no idea that they published so many different versions of daily, weekly and unique emails until I stumbled upon this one. Now after scanning and trying to decide what I really wanted to get I dove deeper into all of the levels of complexity they made public facing.

My hat is off to whomever is managing all of these and my hopes is that they are using a content management system that automates the production of all of these choices. I mean for those of you that publish just one or a few emails you can imagine how many Full Time Employees it would take to pull this off.

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Do you remember back to a time when we all learned to hate the pop up ad? They became both a massive issue with users and the media and at the same time a profit center for so many ad networks and those hocking anti pop up blockers. In the end the pop up lost that round… until the invention of the light box. Yes that cool function so many of us love as it brings functionality right to the top of the screen while not killing the overall site visit is the new pop up. But is seems we like it. And even more importantly it seems to really be working in conjunction with newsletter list growth.

We are not only seeing it with content publishers but more and more we are seeing it across marketing and brand sites. And all use cases I have seen are pointing to it working and not being hated as much as the browser take over ads that make you wait 5 seconds till an ad runs or allowing you to click past it. And why is this? Well this one I found from a recent link (as no matter what you think I am not a reader of AskMen.com) was a good example of why they are working.

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You hear all sorts of stories in the news, in print, online and from friends about people going above and beyond what’s required of them. People espouse the stories of major brands, such as Nordstrom and Les Scwab, as well as those in the service industry, such as bartenders and waiters, that go the extra distance to ensure their customers are delighted. How about you as marketers? You are after all in a customer service position. Are you delivering a level of experience that prompts others to talk, share, forward, post, respond to you or your programs, say thanks, or simply have a better experience than they would have expected?

This is something you must consider. Sure, you may say that you work for a software provider, an online retailer or another company that already provides a great service with happy customers, and I’m sure you do, but are people really taking notice and telling their stories, as related to your brand, without being prompted? Most likely, no.

So what can your company do to create this level of customer relationships this year? Well, there are a host of things that can drive this forward (and I list some suggestions below), but in the end it is important to remember that it will take your entire team, company or organization to truly make it happen.

Here are some ideas that I believe are worth exploring with your team…
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Yes there is a little tongue in cheek here as I wanted to share with you the opt in process from Swell, an online clothing retailer. I have followed them for a while as they are a very frequent mailer. To me it feels like they send me an email 5 days a week, it may be less but that is my perception. Now is that too much? Not really as every email I get from them is uniquely designed and they present options that are typically relevant. Now I have only purchased from them a few times since opting in so I would not think that they have much merchandising or behavioral data on me besides the fact that I always read and often click. That might be enough for them to do a good job targeting OR it might be that I am in the target demo based on lifestyle and location. Either way they are doing a better job than some of their competitors in this retail space.

But to get back on track I wanted to share their opt in and welcome email as I thought it was well done. The opt in does a good job of presenting 3 variations of the emails I would receive by opting in. I am always thankful when I get to see some examples located around the opt in process. I feel that it is a good way to condition people to what to expect. Almost in a way of setting up the experience of when I see them in the inbox for the first time. Adding the birthdate to the form must be a legal requirement for them or even one that helps them to look at age data in targeting. Heck we will see in about a month if they have a birthday campaign as well.

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With many of you and other brands embracing using social icons in their emails I thought it would be a good time to talk about the ideas and implementation a little. First, there is not ONE way to approach and execute this concept. It is the wild west right now in how and what works best so I would advise you to think about some of the below scenarios and see what might work best for you.

One: Follow/Friend/Fan Me. So really do we need to be friends or fans? An interesting article was written in Fast Company the other day on the topic of “I don’t want to be friends with my butter”. Read it here. I could not agree more with this stance as social media is not for everyone or every brand when it comes to a facebook fan page. What you really need to think about is similar to everything you know about email marketing; is it relevant, what is the frequency and why would I want to opt in. The caveat is that it needs to drive some type of brand value, loyalty or (yes it is an ugly word but it works) rewarding. Some people know that I have a personal issue with the words friend, follow or fan. They are incredibly egotistical and cult like words that really are not what this is all about. It is about connection, impact and value. I know we did not create the words but I think you should think about how you use them in your copy. Look to find other words that are more relevant and meaningful. The good news I have seen is only 30% of major brands have gone the route of a fan page thus far. This tells me that some people are thinking about it.

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Well we are t-minus 12 days till we descend upon Miami Beach for the annual Email Experience Council conference. Our team is once again in the email design competition facing off against one prior challenger (Mighty Interactive) and a new one (Ogilvy). The last time we met it was a great battle of not only design but reasons behind making design decisions. So without giving away the rounds and brands we have all been working on these past few weeks I wanted to share with you some of the original and new designs that were presented. Look for more attention this year paid to rendering, social, mobile and driving conversions with the campaigns we were tasked to overhaul.

You can view last years PPT, Video and write up here.

The First Round: esurance Campaign – Original

Mighty Interactive:

eROI Design:

Responsys:

Now everyone had a different approach this email but the key things were clearly presenting the savings, using buttons to drive the actions, and pulling in key brand elements (like Erin the heroine) into the action for quick processing and recognition of the sender.

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As a marketer (inbound or outbound), mobile, advertiser or email marketer there are 5 things that you should be starting to think about if you are not already. I trust that most of you are now realizing we are in the awkward teen years of the mobile decade. It’s not the year of mobile, as I am sure we were hear people champion in posts and articles this year, but the middle stage of starting to really have a mobile network that provides data and connections everywhere (insert ATT/Sprint/Verizon/TMobile jab here…you know you just did subconciously), user base, UI/UE thoughts and design, and a consumer ecomomy that now needs always to be tethered to the latest news, deals, friend updates, and apps. We have been as a society pushing adoption forward of new medias and repurposing old medias in ways and to devices that we are all scurrying to grasp. Don’t feel alone as you read this as we are all part of this testing and learning process.

So what are you doing, planning or thinking about as to how you are going to respond in regards to your marketing? Have you laid out some tests? Thought of some ideas? Reviewed your own data to help you make educated guesses? You have to start somewhere and looking at your own reporting is a place to start in order to find the seeds to plant and grow your ideation.

I am fortunate to work with a team and some clients that are actively embracing, testing, learning, and understanding how to approach this next phase in the evolution of marketing. And even though I often write about email here, it is not all about email. Not a shock to some of you I hope.

The 5 Things that I think are worth your attention and thought are the following:

place, device, location, action and intent

With a clear understanding of what these 5 things not only mean to you but to your audience you are placing yourself in the right stating point to shape a plan of action.

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Moving into my 14th year in interactive marketing I took some time to look back at some things I have learned. January is always a time of reflection, planning and charting new directions – as well as learning from past lessons/wins/mistakes – and I wanted to share some of these with you.

1. Patience: Nothing that gets rushed works out well. Having the time to plan, create and fine tune always works better.

2. Failure is imminent – Learn from it. Nothing works 100% of the time perfectly. That is one of the beauties of the internet and digital marketing. As soon as something goes live we can learn from it, study it and change it. Learning from mistakes or ideas are the key way to grow and do better.

3. Who is Invested? Not everyone on a project, even a client is 100% invested or committed. It is a hard lesson to learn but even “we” can be our own worst “client” at times. People have so many distractions, commitments and other balls in the air that often it takes someone steering the ship. Heck it can even be an intern to keep the ball in play. Learn to be flexible and understand the commitments everyone involved in a project might have outside of the project. Once you can see all the other factors at play you will have a clearer understanding and be able to do your best job.

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It was great not only to see one of our clients doing a whiz-bang job on their welcome messages but also on the feedback that the subscriber sent in. When was the last time that you were delighting people with your welcome messaging in a way that made them take the time to write a response? I think you should make this a goal to achieve this year.

Over and over I tell people about the importance of Welcome and Thank You messages when people opt in to a newsletter, make an information request, sign up for a webinar or any other first touch point. It really does set the tone, make an impact and build a path for your email marketing. Take a moment to review your own emails and see if there are things you can do to uplevel your programs. And if you are still missing a Welcome or Thank You email I would work hard to get one in place. First impressions are hard to make twice.

Example of this email after the jump

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I know I have said it a million times in speeches, articles and in person but telling someone thanks is one of the best things that you can ever do for your email campaigns. Now I don’t mean just at the sign up, like “Thanks for signing up for OUR email newsletter” but really saying thank you and giving them something use, do or enjoy.

I wanted to point out a few recent favorite examples to give you a better idea of a retailer that is excelling at not only saying thank you but showing it as well.

Urban Outfitters not only gives you a straight forward and dead simple way to opt in, but they also make sure to ask more information about you after the opt in. Smart. Less road blocks more happy subscribers and list growth. Also while you are thanking them for signing up you are also more likely to get the next bits of info from them that are relevant while they are engaged. Knowing that mobile and TEXT is very important to their marketing mix as well as what their target demo uses frequently and is open too, asking for a mobile is a great idea here. Other great features they include is asking about your social network affiliation (who knows what’s next here) as well as your online Vs offline shopping.

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Do you have any idea how many emails you are going to start sending this week through the 1st week of January? Remember Christmas is just a date and not the end of the etailing season, it goes strong(er) after holiday sales for some brands. Better yet, do  you subscribers have ANY idea how many you are going to send them? Do they know what/when/why? Most likely they have no clue and are going to go into retail shock as well these next few days duking it out with email offers, catalogues and store aisles. I know that in some cases with clients I work with they are moving from 2-4 a month to 2-4 a week. What? Yep you heard it. Getting very aggressive to be in the inbox when the subscribers are “in-market”.

What struck me was an email from Zappos this past week. Now the execution could have been clearer with font sizes and visual organization, or even better just focus on the core messaging to better place the value proposition front and center; but over all it was a genius idea. Setting the expectations of what is to come. Here comes the holidays, here is what to expect when (Read the content that I BOXED in orange), what you can do with it and why you want to look for it. Better yet it ends with “LOVE” and a note that the “story” starts Monday.

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Over the past few months I have personally been under a massive attack from people now using the “Freemium” model that so many small business ESPs have opened up and offered to their “clients”/personally I want to call them users. This is a personal stance post here and should have no reflection on anyone but me, but I am quite tired of the free ESP services. Why? Well they are giving anyone with the ability to upload a list the ability to email me. It opens up the just because you can does not mean you should debate I often have with people new to email marketing (yes there are always people new to it).

I am a firm believer that not everyone should have access to an ESP platform unless they have some skin in the game. Use your gmail, msn, yahoo, personal email to get a personal relationship with me. Free accounts simply allow people to take liberties with email and blatantly goes against all the best practices and rules we all fight so hard to instill and drive.

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I have a confession to make. I have let something I used to care about die. Yes my attention to the new new thing, the shiny thing, the next thing made me forget and neglect one of my longest life partners on this mad ride we call the internet. Now it was not something I was doing on purpose, we just grew apart over time. I found corporate accounts, gmail and social tools to pull my attention in more often and in less locations. Hell I had changed my preferences so many times I just had to simplify. I needed more but needed to check less places.

It was love at first site. Email, an inbox, communications, connections, wild mind blowing stuff…. well even today email still intrigues me. So many others jump from tech to tech, thing to thing, but one thing stays a constant not matter what you throw at it.

You (MSN/Hotmail) were my first and I am not sure why I keep you around as we have grown so apart and our friends all know where to find us at other places. Maybe it was just convenience and old habits. Maybe it was just time and attention.

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