The Email Wars

I was driving home last night and thinking about a project I am working on for a client right now. They are having us work on their welcome messaging strategy and it had my brain churning. I am not sure why it was so important for me to think about, but I distilled it down to four things that I think are important when you are setting up a relationship via the opt in with email marketing. 

Identification, Trust, Understanding and Conversion. 

Identification:

You could make this simple: Who is sending this email and what will I know about them. Or you can think it out farther. We all know that you have a short time to capture the attention of the email reciepent. So what are the things you need to focus on? The from line, is it you or your brand. The subject line, what is the action you are intending them to take. If you can make this a Welcome/Thanks/You need to X subject line then you are ahead of the game.

This also lines up with the creative. Will they see your brand instantly? Will the creative match up with the look of the site that they were just on and carry over the voice of where they just came from online? You can focus on thinking about the split second reaction of the WHO to nail this. 

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In order to protect the innocent we had to spring to action this past week. We were presented an email that was designed by another agency for an event that we were working on. They had volunteered to do the creative work for the event and we were happy to let them take a stab at it. Now I don’t want you to get the wrong impression, but I can never understand how some agencies do not get the finer points (wait the basic points) of good email design. 

Since there was not time to make it not an ALL image email we had to look at what we could fix in a short amount of time. We took a quick look at it and had these questions. 

Before:

1. What was the event

2. Who did I want to see

3. What did I need to do

Now these should be some questions that you always ask yourself with a little change to the who, what, where and why. But eROI stepped into email triage and put some minds against it. In no more than 30 minutes we were able to drive home the message, I think. We clearly communicated what was going on, why you would be interested, who was going to be there that you would want to see, and what to do. Simple enough huh? 

After:

But in the end I want to focus on how we can help our agency partners get a better idea of how to approach design for the inbox. Email design is not print design. Is that clear enough? We are here to explain, help and even give you feedback. Use us as a friend and partner whenever you want. 

Now let’s execute some great campaigns.

Ok, had to share this. You might laugh, you might say it is dumb, etc. Regardless I got a hoot out of it and I am a dog person not a cat person. The below post is really illustrative of two things. One we create bad terms and more bad terms every day. Two we need to focus on understanding what we hear before playing the game of telephone.

But what spawned this was someone today asking me if I had heard about “cat phishing”. I was not sure what to think. Many ideas ran through my brain of what it could be, but in the end after searching and searching it turns out that is was “copy cat phishing” they heard. Yes now that makes more sense. 

It is something that all brands have to consider as it is everywhere and could negatively impact your own brand and the consumer trust in your brand. But then again so could the avian bird flu, a wayward mack truck, or the news. So until you find the magic brand protection bullet (I think it is co-ownership with the consumer/partner) let’s just enjoy some cat phishin’.

Now the image is funny, but the problem is not. It is kind of like opting in for a camapaign with a name like Mr. Poopypants. I bet there are quite a few other ways we could make a dent here, like a public service campaign of education about email marketing from the DMA, EEC, DM News, and all the other ESPs and marketers. That would most likely help all of us if we took this to the public proactively instead of just sitting back and dealing with it. 

Now me, I am up to $135 that I OWE the Obama campaign since the night of the DNC election speech. Ryan, he has HOPE that the Obama team will starting using email more intellegently instead of email intellegence.

Feeling like the news paper boy is chasing me down the block 1-2 times a day looking for $5.00. Time to throttle it back guys and stop being panhandlers.

This election is providing us with so much real time data on the good and bad things we need to consider about our email marketing programs. 

The question it continues to leave in my mind is this: IF elected, will Obama continue to use email as a communication vehicle to the citizens of the United States? I would really hope that he would as it would be a great thing for all of us to have a direct communication method to the leader of our country as well as make a statement about the power and acceptance of email.

If you have not heard about the new project that the Email Experience Council is working on for this year’s non profit project, you should get up to speed. Jeanniey Mullen has just posted the next update on the project on the ClickZ site. You can read about last year’s project here as well.

I can tell you that we have an all star email marketing crew on this from many ESPs, brands, PR firms, and agencies. There have been many calls and many meetings leading up to this effort that will soon start paying off for the Agassi Foundation. 

We would love you to watch how it grows to see if you have some ideas on how to help us spread the word on this project. It is going from a regional to a national effort. Any help that you or our company would like to provide would be appreciated. 

Read the article here >>>

Today the team sent me an intervention email. It is not that they don’t like me, it was that they are “concerned” about my love and embracing of ALL things digital. I IM, I email, I Tweet, I Facebook, I Skype, I blog, I comment, I Flickr, I YouTube, I Vimeo, I post in forums, and most importantly I forget to notice that it is still sunny out in Portland, Oregon. I guess that they have a point now that I have taken the first step in admitting I have a problem. 

So I am happy that they took the time to intervene. At least they used email as the vehicle, as last time the all company “meeting” in my office was a bit over the top. Guess they forgot about the baseball bat and the fire escape so close to my desk…

But on the other side of the coin, this is one of the simplest and best sites using email as the “viral” vehicle that I have seen in a while. MeetUp used a great idea about all of us and our dependence on online communication, “friends” (watch the video and see if you catch the 433,000 BFFs copy there, classic), and the fact that we need to use these mediums to gt back out and physically interact with those in the real world. After all it is where LIFE happens, not the inbox or the web. Sorry to burst your bubbles.

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This story/case study in DM News caught my attention as I so often wonder how wineries do not focus more and more on email marketing as a communication, brand development and sales tool. It seems like a natural way for these business owners to build a relationship with consumers and fans when wineries are only located in 3 places. 1. The Winery 2. The Grocery Aisle 3. The Restaurant. 

If you can work to add a simple way to capture the email address at the winery or on your own site you are 99% of the way there to setting up a relationship that should drive more bottle sales at all three locations. Just knowing what wine to select when you see it can be a chore from a list and from the aisle. If you can work on your programs to get people to recognize the name and label you are winning the battle.

Owning and growing this relationship through email is most likely one of the best and best cost factor mediums to talk to your enthusiasts. As a wine lover myself I know that I appreciate learning more about the winery, vintages, events and in many way becoming a smarter, better educated imbiber of the tasty grape treat. 

DM News has the full story here >>

You got past the filters. You made the From line and Subject Line clear. Check. But now I open the email from you and I am bombarded with so many brands. Most of whom (if I don’t read all the M&A news) I would not know why they are in this email. I built my relationship with Snapfish, but now you have some new parents and it seems that you parents might be more proud of their brand than the one you have spent so much time building. 

In this email from Snapfish you are immediately placed off guard by seeing the Comcast(ic) brand header at the top. When did Comcast lead again? Is this an ad for Comcast or an email newsletter form Snapfish? Now I realize that when one brand buys another brand it takes time to move the customer from one expectation in branding to another. I expect to see some brand confusion at first as they build knowledge and association, but not a brand hijacking. And this being said… I am a marketer. If I threw this up to the “Mom” test we always like to use, she would be confused. Please, if you have a mother, make sure that she sees this first. If she gets it, then we will get it. 

I think that there is another way that could have been approached on a brand education standpoint than what we see here. This hodge podge of Comcast, Snapfish and HP does not work. I know eventually that will change as we get used to it, but in the mean time remember your subscriber. Remember who you has built the relationship. Remember the brand value. And most importantly respect the trust that the brand you just bought has built in our lives. It is not easy to get trust back once lost.

I like to see how some brands are increasing ways to become the one stop location and challenge the channel partners that they work with. Now I assume that they are partnered up with a travel system, but this is a natural extension of maximizing the reach that they have to travelers. 

I know as a frequent traveler myself that I go back and forth between hotel sites, ones that I have accounts with and then to airline sites. So combining it and presenting it as a customer value is a good way to approach this. I know that some of you will continue the search back and forth between browsers and sites, but I will wager that they capture a good percentage of those traveling with them on the fact that you can use your hotel points just like miles for flight so easily. 

Good thinking. 

The EEC and Chad White have published their Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season. Worth a read if you are in the consumer markets or have campaigns that will touch people during the holidays.

Executive Summary:

Long before retailers hang any wreaths or tinsel in their stores, they send out emails promoting their Christmas deals to their subscribers—lots of emails! Last year the Email Experience Council tracked more than 3,300 emails from more than 100 top online retailers during the fourth quarter and released daily reports on strategies, tactics and trends via the Retail Email Blog. Based on that monitoring, the eec has produced this helpful roadmap to the email holiday season so retailers and other B2C companies can better formulate their campaigns this year.

This guide includes benchmarks and advice on when to begin your campaign, how much to increase your email volume, which days to send on, and how to stand out in the inbox during the holidays. For instance, last year 88% of major online retailers increased their email volume during the holiday season, with retailers boosting their send volumes by 45% on average.

It also discusses and provides examples of the “16 Phases of Christmas,” the 16 strategies that retailers use at different points in the holiday season. Those strategies include promoting e-gift cards and “buy online, pick up in store” services.

Check it out and get the Guide >>

What do we see in email? Buy me. Sell Me. Join Me. Listen to Me. Or simply Here I Am. What value does that bring to your brand? What value does that bring to your customer? We could argue each side brings value to a certain segment of your audience. And in some cases it does. But what about using email marketing to expand your brand story? Are there things that you are not thinking about that through targeted exposure might bring a new thought or feeling, and yes a sale, to your email marketing campaigns. 

I was struck by a hotel brand that I appreciate as they continue to do good things with their email marketing strategy. I need to call them one day and find out who is the brains behind their thinking here. They are a boutique property with over 20 cities with locations. Well this past week they launched a new site and focused on the food and restaurants at their properties not only in the email but even down to the title tags in the site. Kudos for thinking about this holistically instead of in a silo we often see from brands. 

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Just how do you drive a move to mobile email campaign? I was forwarded this example of eTrade making a move to get people to use their mobile version by giving away a free blackberry. That is one way. But what did they miss with this campaign? 

1. Where is the VIEW AS Mobile version for those getting this on a mobile device? FAIL

2. Why is the header of the email so massive? Anyone with a mobile device is not forced to scroll (or thumb) down to the content If they have HTML enabled. 

3. The email itself is over (I cut off the 2 pages of legal) 1200 pixels long. Not a very good practice in my book if you are targeting mobile OR even the typical inbox. 

So what would have worked better? 

First nailing the top three above. But on top of that thinking about the value prop of not just giving an incentive of a blackberry but a mobile device of their choice. Not everyone wants a blackberry so why pigeon hole yourself into a gift that might not appeal to your audience. I know that this is a deal with Blackberry as the content says “exclusive” but they need to be building mobile apps to be cross platform complaint. They might have missed some promotional opportunities to just touch an existing audience and move them to use their services from a value standpoint. 

What would you have done?

Typically I would have seen this email and glanced over it. I would have noted that it was pretty but not well designed from an optimization standpoint of inbox rendering if images were blocked. But for some reason I decided to click through. Now it has been some years since I have last bought a wet suit (moving to Oregon 18 years ago has slowed my love of surfing growing up in CA), but I thought I would check out what has changed.

So in clicking through I found a very cool landing page with a flash feature that highlights the suit and it’s features. I found myself wanting to learn more about it. So I tried to access the rest of the site. No go. I was not an option. An AJAX window came up and asked for my Cypher code. Cypher code? What was that? I thought about it for a minute and my mind flashed back to an element in the email I remembered seeing. I went back to the email and noticed that the cypher code they were referring to was in the email creative. The blow was that I was not able to copy and paste it due to the fact that it was an image. Drats. 

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We came up with the idea of trying out the horizontal email technique with one of our clients, Zinio. We thought that as a company that is showing how digital magazines are different, that we wanted them to challenge how emails were read, just like how magazines are read. We have seen 4 examples of this in the past and heard great things from folks that did it for Coors, FHM, Diesel and a luggage company, so why not give it a try. 

So far it has performed well and as the list grows we will watch to see how it works out. Now this being said, we did make a standard back up email layout just in case it went the other way. Well luck was on our side. 

My thoughts are why not challenge the medium. Why not make something stand out that not only grabs the readers attention, makes them pause to look at it, and if it works see if the media picks it up. Well all three things happened. 

So what is next? We will see as the months go on. We are always up to try something different. Are you?

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Here it is… another great survey on email marketing and email marketer from eROI. Now this one is juicy as well as good looking. I know I am a little biased, but I love the design work our team is doing. Also be on the look for new case studies coming out on Email Design, Campaign Sites, Publishing Client Campaigns, and new methods of email marketing that are delivering ROI in social media.

Here is what you will get in the new study:

We examine all the elements of a great email, and show where email marketers are hitting (and missing) opportunities to increase deliverability, opens, clicks and conversions. We uncover rising trends and current opportunities. How do your email marketing campaigns need to evolve to take advantage?

Download our presentation of the full results!