The Email Wars

Many of you might not have tried content sharing in your emails yet. Sure you added a Follow Us, Friend Us, Fan Us, Sweat Us (I made that last one up) link in your header or footer but is that really making an impact and driving lift to your campaigns. You might be surprised at the results and some simple tests and implementations will allow you to show results to those you need to prove the integration of the channel to with data.

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.

I wrote this article for iMediaConnection the other week. Thought you might like it.

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

Are you running an email marketing rodeo or simply a one trick pony program? Many marketers run the latter as they look at the opt in to be a way to turn on the one way funnel similar to direct mail. Well this is not hitting a PO Box but hitting the inbox. The inbox is directly tied to this magical digital rodeo we call the internet which enables us to create actions based on actions. Have I lost you yet? I hope not.

Marketing online is taking a turn to marketing automation. There is not way using past techniques that we can always be there to know when someone is ready for A or B to happen. But using the new systems of marketing automation we are finally gaining ground to creating trigger based campaigns on actions, behavior and timing. It is something that has been a long time coming. I hope you are ready to take the bull by the horns and make the leap out of the chutes.

What are triggers in email marketing? Well they can be all of the following and more. Depending on what you are able to do I suggest you review these and saddle up with one or all of them.

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Over the years we have seen email marketing change from being a one to all to a one to one medium. Much of this has been not only pushed by the growth in the tools available that email marketers use, but in the tactics and knowledge we apply to bringing communications down to a one to one basis. Now although we would love to see more people using email in this fashion, as it would lift engagement, drive relevant campaigns, and allow people to get emails that they want from companies and brands… the problem always lies in the data.

Now I would state that the challenge does not lie entirely on the tools we use, but in the time that we invest in reading and making decisions based on the data we get back from the campaigns. Communication being taken down to a one to one basis does not rely on the subscriber, they expect it, but it comes down to the marketer doing their job of using what they know.

There are a few things I suggest that you spend some time on in the coming months.

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In looking through some recent work our team has been busting out I wanted to share a few examples of how we have been using social media in email marketing. Now I know I have busted the chops of others lately, and I am sure that we have things to test and learn still as well, but here are three examples that I find to be well executed from our team.

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.

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What Lohan got arrested? Hilton in another bikini? Bret Micheals hospitalized? All this and more is content that many need faster than they can get it. And that is where clients of ours like OK! Magazine comes into to make sure that content is in your inbox to keep you in the know.

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.

I have been noodling on this email I got from Smart USA the other week. I had to as if I would have erupted on day one about it I might have gone too “Lord of the Flies” on social media experts out there using email to increase social media marketing. Or even bashed agencies handling client email campaigns who just missed the boat and used the “Check the Box” method of marketing. Campaigns like this convey close to zero sense of engagement and simply using the copy to tell us that you have been really hammering away at social media and not show us is not the way to go about moving your subscribers in that direction.

Leading with the subject line to “follow them online!” was my first pointer to pause and wonder if this email I was reading was not online but I had printed it off or seen it on a bus.

When I see an email like this I think:

Social Media – Check

YouTube – Check

Facebook – Check

Twitter – Check

Email about Social media – Check

I don’t think strategy and a well planned campaign. I think OK we got social media cooking, we should drop an email out there to let people know.

Now that was what the check list looked like to me with SMART’s approach with this email. Here are some quick and easy take aways for using social media in email – and more importantly if you use email to LAUNCH social media how to approach it.

1. SHOW the icons we all understand – use the facebook, youtube and twitter (or other social network) icons. Don’t try to rely on simple text links buried in the content. This is a show not tell media. Do not make your own icons if they end up looking NOT like the ones we all recognize and process quickly. If your goal is to get people to use them then use the ones we all know.

2. Use some of the content you have been “busy” creating in the email to give me a sense of what I might have been missing. Tell me how busy you have been at it is of little to no value to a susbcriber.

3. Use email for what it is, a visual medium to inspire and communicate. Now I know that some people will not agree with my thoughts here but this example of a TEXT ONLY email does nothing to convey any importance or value from taking action on these. Do I really need to be “friends” with a car that I don’t even own? I can see how it might resonate with people that are owners of this brand, but for those of us that aren’t – give us something inspiring to WANT to add you to my social media whirlpool.

Social media, like email, is about engagement. And this email fails to engage me at all and more importantly left me thinking that they weren’t too SMART after all.

All hail the mobile future, as it is here now.

I love living in the future. Who would have ever thought that things we saw on TV as kids would be here today and in our lives. I know it makes me feel and sound old, but this new device is truly inspiring. Now I have heard some complaints about it, but the funniest one to me so far (that I have heard on multiple occasions) is how heavy it is! Guys, it weighs a pound and a half… is that too heavy for a TV/ book/ magazine/ library/ jukebox/ photo gallery/ email inbox/ web browser/ gaming machine? If it is too heavy – or heavier than you expected – get a 2 pound weight and do some reps or curl that 20 oz coffee mug a few more times a day.

And while I am at it… this post was sent from the future.

I thought it might be interesting (since this post is about reading on the iPad) that I should write (with one fast finger) from mine. Now being that the keyboard is different (do not read “bad” here), it has taken a little longer to make as many typos and grammatically incorrect sentences as I typically do, but give me time and I will be knocking out crap faster than ever and from odder locations.

These thoughts are based on about two weeks on it, and it has been one heck of a two-week stretch, that I only have a few finds thus far. And to preset expectations for this post, I would like to say that more will be found with time and testing.

So, will this be a game changer? Well, if you are talking about video games then yes, just got done running a few laps of Asphalt 5, but this is going to be a device that slowly shifts in how we use it. Regarding email I am not overly convinced it is going to be a positive or a negative yet. It has a little of both.

1. Fewer than 1 million sold so far (maybe more by the time you read this). Now I am sure it will grow, but as an early adopter myself I do not find myself reaching for it more than I do my iPad Foldable XXL(i.e. Laptop) or iPad Nano (i.e. iPhone). Amazingly those two devices are still my primary ways to engage, interact, and work. I expect as more understanding, openness to outside business software, and use grows we will see it make a larger impact. But how? I am not sure yet. 700K were sold out of the gates which is impressive but still not accounting for much of a metric surge in analytics with sites and email clients.

I think that once we see 3G roll out in the coming weeks we might see even more people that were holding out move to acquire a device. I have wifi wherever I go so it really makes 3G a non-factor. I assume that the story will be the same for many that do not venture to places without connections. PS it is ok NOT to have an internet connection or device from time to time; you will not die. Trust me, I have experimented with being disconnected, and I survived. It was a lot like that TV show Lost but with less black smoke monsters and more mai tais.

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For the past year we have all seen how everyone wants to add social media (ie Fan Us, Tweet This, Share This etc) in their email marketing campaigns. And from what we have witnessed a majority or companies, brands and email marketers are jumping on board to use it in their email marketing campaigns. We know from use ourselves that it is working, people are taking content shared via email and extending it further into the social media streams and rivers of news out there. And that is the point right… using it to extend the reach of your already engaged (ie Opted in) customer base in close conjunction with your email marketing campaigns.

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Diesel has always had a strong approach to email marketing. They typically use content and images to suck you in that you are not expecting, driving at least me, to spend some time on it. Now this one in particular felt like a hot mess. At first I thought who messed this one up and how did the rendering go so sideways. With a little further review I realized that it was all on purpose. Once I had spent time reading it through my opinions shifted. But there were some more things I noticed after a later look into the email itself that led me to think more about “was this a test of social media in email OR just a clever copywriter using marks that lend themselves to social media?” Seems that they might have missed something larger here.

Leading with the subject line “The exclusively limited Be Stupid t-shirts (hesitate and you are lost).” Now bad grammar aside it was an interesting way to build a subject line. Driving demand and curiosity at the same time. Driving into the body it was interesting to see how they used the stike outs in the copy header to focus on PANIC. The “URGENT MESSAGE” only added to the silliness.

There were all sorts of little copy areas (that were all image of course) that continued to add to the story while creating a Where’s Waldo-esque word search for me. They also used a hashtag in the top (twice) of #BESTSTUPIDTEES. Now the funny thing is that that hashtag must have been either not noticed or not worth using as in a search there was not a peep of them, even from the Diesel Twitter account. What this leads me to believe is that it was a test and a poor one at that. If they are using them in a campaign and not even taking the time to use them themselves then why use them at all? Social media in email FAIL? Well take it one step deeper and notice that they don’t even have a Twitter (688 followers + tons of tweets about the campaign but not one mention of the hashtag used in this email) or Facebook call out in this email as well.

Guys if you are going to experiement with social media in email actually present it as such or don’t use it at all. After a search around what looks like a HUGE campaign budget being spent on print and other places they have totally neglected how social could have made this viral and larger in a very easy way. They even have a microsite dedicated to it with the smallest social icon set in the bottom footer below all the action. Foolish? Or are they just not ready?

In the end it was an entertaining campaign that ended up showing me how large brands are still missing the boat when it comes to understanding the web and social media as a whole.

Other than that, creative idea – poor execution.

As a long time reader of GQ Magazine I was excited to get this email the other day letting me know that they were launching the new Newsletter “The Hound”. So as I opened the email and took a gander I was more than greatly disappointed to get what I would associate with a Sunday Newspaper ad circular. What were they thinking?

If this is a newsletter to them talking about their advertisers and not focusing on the great content that they produce and driving me in for more… then I get the chills about when I get hit with a marketing campaign. Will it be a timeshare offer? Maybe something to help me be a “better”man… Who knows but it was disappointing. I wonder how many other of their readers and email subscribers had the same feeling here?

So what is a newsletter, let’s get back to basics.

A newsletter is something that shares articles, stories, content, ideas and information that keeps a subscriber in connection with the company that they opted in to. No it is not a “save 25%” email or anything else which it honestly trying to sell you. Take a look at some of your favorites as I did and notice that newsletters are resources and not pitches.

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Are we setting realistic expecations as an industry on welcome emails when it comes to offline collection at stores, events and more? This is often a point that email marketers bring up and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. I sometimes think that as email marketers we expect more from programs and companies than they are set up to handle? Online and offline don’t always need to have the same rules. A little time between an offline relationship getting started might actually be a healthy buffer. We do live in a society where we drink in the immediacy of actions and reactions, but we also live in a world with systems and challenges that we need to be understanding of and stepping out of our email marketing shoes every once in a while can help you to understand this.

What is acceptable in regards to the time that goes by from an in store register, hand written sign up or kiosk to send a Thank you or Welcome message? Is it immediately, one day, 2 days 3 days or one week? I would go out on a limb here and say all of them are acceptable based on what the companies systems are best suited to handle. I mean as long we are not not talking a 2 plus weeks to a month we should be happy as email marketers, and more importantly consumers at this time frame.

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We often talk about email preference centers, email frequency and optimizing the amount of emails we send in our weekly thoughts and conversations about email marketing. But all of these are really marketer side actions and don’t really focus on the email subscriber as directly as we think they do. So what about a “pause” button that would allow subscribers in either your emails or your preference centers to activate a PAUSE on your email campaigns. Now I am not talking about an unsubscribe or opt out feature, or even a change in frequency (please only email me once a month, week, etc) but actually creating a way for subscribers to pause a relationship.

Now this is not very marketer centric, but in the end it should not be. It should be about the subscriber giving them the instant ability to pause a relationship for 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, etc. Microsoft flirted with this ability back in 2008 with a pause plugin for Outlook that never really went anywhere. It did not actually pause emails, but simply placed a delivery delay on them. Now that is not truly the direction I think benefits anyone. Why? Well the consumer is still going to get emails that might have expired items, codes, deals, or information that is now out of date. That only creates frustration and a bad user experience. What I would like to see the industry explore is really investigating how to pause a relationship placing all communications that the individual has opted into on a time based pause.

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We all know that we love getting emails on our birthdays. I was watching last year to see of all the 100s of emails that I was subscribed to from consumer brands to see how many of them actually used them. I mean why not treat yourself right? But what I found interesting was that of all the lists I am subscribed to that only 5 brands actually sent me an email. Now maybe some of them did not have my date of birth when I opted in, but what a great thing to do right? If you can create a unique email focused to go out to your lists to drive a sale and provide goodwill as well it should be a win. So why don’t we see more retailers using this technique?

Well I assume that most don’t ask or have not thought about it. Would we willing give birth date information if asked? A majority of people would not and might even shy away from it if there is not an explanation of why you are asking. But what if you show and tell them why you want to ask it? I would think that if it was clearly presented from a personal win/benefit perspective that you would find more people opting in to this type of information.

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Ok the article title was meant to entice you, but isn’t that what subject lines are all about? At the end of this month we are happy to be spending 3 days in San Diego at the Online Marketing Summit February 22-24th. While there, besides speaking on one panel called Email Leaders Forum we will also be running a one on one email audit table where you can sign up and have one of our email strategy team review your situation, campaign, subscription center, welcome stream or overall plan and get our thoughts on how you might improve it.

I know sounds too good to be true right? Well we are trying to put our team out there to help you. We look at and work on 1000’s of campaigns across every market niche out there each year, and with 7 plus years of doing this at eROI alone we wanted to allow people to get some tangible actions that they can take that are relevant to their job roles and email marketing plans and not just sit in another session.

Email Marketing – Auditing your Email Workflow

Learn how to engage your target audience through effective and branded emails. The experts at eROI will help you audit your email workflow from creative to deliverability and show how you can turn a dud into a success.

So we hope to see many of you there and make sure to sign up when you arrive to guarantee your spot at our table with us. Make sure if you do that you bring the things you want us to review. As player/coaches ourselves and eternal students of digital/email marketing we are really excited to be in a place to help you out in person.

We hope to see you there. And if you can’t make it for some reason you can always drop us an email or call as we are happy to take a look under the hood for you to make some calls on what might add some horsepower and drive some more RPM into your campaigns.