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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Sure we all know that Twitter is a great way to increase your reach and deliver valuable content in a real time manner to those that are addicted to it like I am (I would wager many of you are as well). But are you using it in the best possible way to grow your email marketing programs? I have seen an uptick in companies using it is pre-promote the release of a newsletter telling people to opt in before the latest edition gets sent. I have seen companies feeding special versions of their newsletter out using it as well. And if they are smart they are also using it to feed individual articles from their newsletters to this channel. But recently I saw Nordstrom using it to engage with people for targeted newsletter growth.

Some time back I saw them use it to promote a men’s newsletter through a simple tweet. Smart idea. Now I am not sure if they have some way to segment based on gender (as this would be great if someone could do this from a communications tool into their follower steam) but it did catch my eye and made me want to look further as an email marketer.

I had assumed that I was going to land on a general newsletter sign up page and need to select the right lists to be on. Well I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that they took me right to a unique landing opt in page JUST for that men’s newsletter. Nice work. Now even if they did not have the ability to gender target using Twitter, they do have more of that data now by the implementation of this gender specific newsletter opt in page. Now they know that these users are male. What would have made this even better would have been if they would have either used the Twitter OAuth system to login via Twitter and capture that Twitter handle as well as an email address. By doing this they could have added this data to their user profiles in order to look for patterns and ways in the future to interact better via Twitter OR the email.

But none the less it was a great promotion and a well thought out use of targeting and landing based on gender. It opens up many ideas in my mind about the types of user data that email marketers that are giddy about social media to think about using. I would even advance the idea of similar campaigns in Facebook and employing Facebook Connect to get the 36 data fields (email is now one as well) when creating an opt in form. I have been toying with this idea for a while now since the recent addition of email as one of the marketer accessible fields in the Facebook Connect API.

Thinking about this idea, do you think that you could push your teams to try something new with implementation of social connection tools? Worth a test I think.

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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It is here. You know it, I know and your customers know it. So what does mobile mean to email marketers? I am sure you have some thoughts as to your own campaigns seeing them on your iPhone, gPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, or yes (gasp) Palm Treo – but I wanted to take some time the past 2 weeks to look at some examples, test some ideas and look at some things that we can all use to do better.

The top things to look are email rendering, email readability, action paths, ability to complete goals, and need for a mobile version of your website, blog, ecommerce site, or simply a paired down mobile version of the content you are presenting.

The good news is most all companies are in the same boat this point in time so you have time to explore, plan and react.

With eMarketer reporting that over 42% of US consumers are stating that they had a smart phone as of Dec 2009 we need to take this seriously. This same study also reports that nearly 13% of respondents are planning on purchasing one in the next 90 days. Tick Tock. I have also seen some recent studies citing that around 17% of smart phone users are already making purchases. Just imagine if we had mobile friendly emails, campaigns, websites and ecommerce. What a difference that would make in these numbers. So what is it going to take 60%? 70%? Most likely it is just going to take time for companies to start making strides to deliver in this fast growing environment.

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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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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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Sitting on a fresh start for 2010 we have been looking hard at our own email marketing efforts to see what we can do ourselves to step it up a notch. We spent a lot of 2009 fine tuning our campaigns, welcome streams, and newsletters to focus on performance and cross platform/device rendering. We found out a lot of new things that we were able to try from as simple as mobile versions, pre headers, and subtle changes to button colors/placements that made some impact. Everything we tested gave us lots of ammo for 2010. So what are we going to do with it?

We took it upon ourselves to remap our own communication plan around email and leveraging our systems to hopefully make a larger impact on open/reads as well as clicks and conversions. It has been a large undertaking that took some time due to the fact that as a marketing and software organization we have a lot of systems and tools we use… just like many of you and the clients we work with. So as we move into this year look for a host of new things to be entering your inbox in a new manner.

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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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Well to start out I expected more than 100 plus emails to hit my inbox over the long holiday weekend. Now I was not disapointed that the final tally was only 68 emails. What did surprise me was some of the brands that got into the Thanksgiving/Black Friday holiday rush that I would not have expected. Typically I would expect to see etailers hitting me up hard. But getting emails from Oracle, Southwest Airlines, MINI, Dominos and the Bellagio were surprises.

Now they were all clever and were on point about the holiday shopping weekend, but not ones that I would have thought would be fighting for my dollars and time during this packed holiday email weekend.

But was it bad? Absolutely not. I actually think that they were all on target and had something valuable to offer. Now if the emails/offers were miles removed from this theme it might have struck me as a truly odd placement. Being there with relevant messages made me actually want to give each of them props for the thought and effort as many of their comp we absent during this time.

I know you might think Dominos, but think about this… everyone just got done cooking the big holiday feast and the last thing many people want to do is to cook again. And from the crush of delivery vehicles I saw on the streets of my neighborhood it seemed that everyone had the same thoughts. Timing is everything here and they know their customers.

The crazy thing is our family took this weekend not to shop online or offline. Instead we took this time to be together, get things done, and prepare for the start of our shopping this week. If anything these emails we got we shared between one another for list making and gift planning. So even though we were not taking advantage of the sales (trust me there will be more as the next few weeks whiz by us) were were paying attention to the brands in our inboxes so that we were ready.

Hope that today treats you well with the crush of “cyber Monday” that is hitting us today.

There have been some great email makeovers recently. They always grab my attention as I think we become so conditioned to emails that rarely adapt or change that we actually turn our response mechanisms off to them. So some new creative takes me by surprise in a good way.

I wanted to share the changes that Hotel Indigo recently took and talk through how they might help them drive more conversion.

The prior emails were always fun and focus on a Haiku but the real estate was poorly used above the fold to really give people they want in exposing them to hotel locations and deals to make some impulse reservation planning. When people are in market they want to be provided with visual choices and not simply a photo of one location that might not be relevant.

There was good placement of the 1-800 number which I always find to be good with travel as people still like to call and talk to someone when they are making a reservation at a new location. But with all the locations listed in a simple text menu there is not phsycological connection to the physical place itself. Call me old fashioned but I like to see where I might lay my head down at night. Photos with travel and hotel email do more for me. With other travel (like airlines and destination travel) emails seeing a city shot might work, but when dealing with hotels lets share some of the hotel itself.

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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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Any good relationship needs a foundation that can be built upon. Here are some elements that will help you build a strong email program.

Trust
What will you do with the information you collect from me? Will you protect it and make sure that it will only be used how I have asked it to be used? Will you make sure to honor it even when you think that a “blast” is ordered down from the C-Level? Your job is to take an oath to make sure that the information shared is clearly identified from opt in and presented in a clear manner that builds trust.

Clarity
What am I giving you my information for? Is it a contest? Newsletter? Purchase? What will you send me in the future? What can I expect from you in my inbox? A good program will clearly present the uses of contact, communication and the premise of the relationship. It is your job to honor that and keep your word.
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