Email Marketing Lounge

Birds do it; bees do it; musicians do it... No, not that.

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:26:39 -0800

Like all biological life forms, they have the innate ability to quickly adapt to their surroundings in response to stimulus. To adapt, but also learn and evolve.

By comparison, the best computing solutions are patterned after biology - they have the ability to quickly adapt and learn in response to stimulus. Similarly, some of the most intriguing musical performances have the same qualities.

Take for example, the song "Quadrant 4", from Billy Cobham's Spectrum album. (Go to iTunes and download it, then continue.) The song is based on one of the most familiar, basic patterns in music: the blues. Yet the four musicians take this most basic of formats, blues in 4/4 time (four beats to a measure), and twist it into something entirely new - largely in response to each other - all at breakneck speed.

The first minute is an improvised keyboard and drums segment. The ambidextrous drummer, Billy Cobham, plays like a speeding locomotive: both feet and hands churning away with mind-boggling speed and precision. At the 0:57 second mark, you'll hear him and the keyboardist playfully mimic each other as they head into the main section of the song.

At the 2:50 mark, you'll hear a perfect example of adaptation in response to stimulus - the guitarist goes off on a rhythmic and melodic tangent, and the drummer instantly adapts in a very complex 6-second game of "follow the leader". Not something you could exactly predict, or maybe even understand, but the result? "Wow."

In the end, what they did was take a familiar structure (4/4 blues), adapt it in real time, and create something deeply personalized and compelling on the spot.

An elite few interactive marketing software solutions have this same ability: to take something basic and familiar (an email marketing message, website, microsite, social media communication, etc.), receive real-time campaign feedback stimulus, and then adapt, learn and continually evolve it - all in real time, at breakneck speed. Yesmail has such a solution, one that has received a patent for its universal ability to dynamically adapt and learn as it personalizes interactive media channel content. Examples of this real-time "situational awareness" stimuli that can be received from the targeted audience are:

- What time is it where the email or webpage is being opened?
- Where is the viewer of the email or webpage when it is being opened?
- What is the weather like at that location?

Those are just a few examples of how this solution - similar to our musician friends - can create something highly personalized, relevant and compelling on the spot.

You'll be hearing a lot more about this innovation in the weeks to come. I'm pretty sure it will make you say, "Wow."

Coke USA Launched Today!

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:59:14 -0800

Yesmail is proud to announce the birth of a sparkling new website: cokeusa.com! This website was developed by Yesmail and our partner R2integrated.

Coke USA provides The Coca-Cola Company with an excellent opportunity to communicate directly with key decision makers at home in a refreshing new way. The website speaks to an audience thirsty for an online experience with content that resonates with practicality, pertinence, and accessibility: not mere marketing and promotion. In this way, Coca-Cola can strike a unique relationship with consumers, increasing loyalty through the gift of inspiration, entertainment, and education.

By combining Yesmail's fresh content strategy that serves up relevant, useful, engaging, and inspiring articles and tips with R2integrated's beautiful, intuitive, and fluidly functional build, we created an experience specifically designed to connect with decision makers: a site that speaks directly to a consumer with a friendly style and respect for their busy lives.

Check out the new website and let us know what you think!

Blogs At Work For Small Businesses

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:03:45 -0800

Our parent company, infoGROUP, in Omaha, Nebraska recently started a campaign aimed at generating stimulus for local small businesses. Created by infoGroup's Executive VP, Stormy Dean, the Storm Dawg Marketing blog offers suggestions to small business owners, as well as an opportunity to receive some custom advice. Business owners submit their stories to the blog, then once a month Dean selects one business to receive a tailored marketing plan and a starting budget. The company's progress is documented on the blog for others to read and learn from.

In Dean's own words, "This is a great example of where capitalism meets doing good in the world." By helping small businesses, "hopefully they can create new jobs and along the way we can learn something."

Ralston's Trinity United Methodist, one of the first clients, needed to get the word out about their new community center and benefited from a fund raiser that infoGROUP helped to host. Church members found it to be a great learning experience. They hope others who visit the blog will benefit just as much from reading about both the positive and negative outcomes of the event. "It's exactly what we were looking for," said Trinity United's Pastor Nancy Kaye-Skinner.

This is social media in action, at its best - helping and teaching others during a tough economic period, while preparing for a promising future. For more information on Stormy Dean's small business stimulus plan, visit www.stormdawg.com.

Yesmail and HP win another Creative Award!

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:20:18 -0800

We are thrilled to announce that Yesmail has added another creative design award to our growing list of industry recognitions.

HP and Yesmail have won the Creative Media Award for Best Email for the HP Monster Sale campaign. View the Creative Media Awards 2009 Winners.

In spring 2009, HP partnered with DreamWorks to launch a huge sale utilizing branding and themes from the Monsters vs. Aliens movie. The objective of the campaign was to leverage the excitement surrounding the March 27th movie launch and generate incremental direct sales for HP.

The campaign consisted of 4 email messages launched over 10 days - March 30th through April 9th, 2009. Each message leveraged key characters from the movie. More than 12 million subscribers were targeted, with each subscriber receiving all of the messages in the 4-part series. View all 4 email messages.

The Monster Sale campaign delivered outstanding results. Revenue per message sent was 80% higher than average compared to other messages launched during the quarter! Click Rates were also strong at 37% higher than typical messages delivered over the same timeframe. The significant increase in Click Rates indicates subscribers found the creative appealing and were interested and engaged in the content. Final revenue numbers tallied from the Monster Sale indicated it was one of the most successful HP campaigns in 2009 to date.

In addition to winning this award, Yesmail also had two other finalists in the Creative Media Awards email category: Coca-cola "Try Vault Promotions" and Microsoft "Enhanced Hotmail and Messenger Launch".

Happy Birthday To Me

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 08:41:30 -0800

Many email marketers overlook simple ways to stay in touch with their subscribers such as Thank You and Birthday campaigns.

As we get older, we like to pretend birthdays don't mean as much to us. But your birthday is the one special day each year when you get to celebrate YOU.

As I approached my special day this year I received a steady flow of Birthday messages from some of my favorite brands. Take a look at some of these examples for inspiration:

My Coke Rewards
Eye catching emptying glass reveals bday message; Subject Line: Happy Birthday to You, Tanya

Warner Brothers
20% of my next purchase; Subject Line: "A Birthday Gift for You!"

Macy's
Free Shipping: Subject Line: "Happy Birthday! Celebrate with Free Shipping"

Papa Murphy's
Free cookie dough; Subject Line: "Your birthday is fresh on our minds"

Alaska Airlines
10% off my next ticket purchase; Subject Line: "Happy Birthday - Get 10% off Your Next Flight"

Old Navy
$10 off; Subject Line "It's Your Birthday! Take $10 Off"

There were a lot of nice messages here, but in hindsight, what surprised me the most is how many companies I actively purchase from who missed the opportunity to engage with me on my birthday. Don't overlook how good it makes your customers feel to be acknowledged on their special day. By capturing date of birth (or even just birthday month) as part of your opt-in process, you can deepen your relationship with your subscribers and even generate some incremental sales from birthday promotions. If you don't have date of birth on file, consider conducting a simple data append to enrich your targeting possibilities.

Social Media Events - How things have changed!

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:59:54 -0800

Last week thousands gathered via WOM to see Dave Chappelle in my own hometown at Pioneer Square. The Chappelle 'show' was a total success - by accident - purely by the instantanous word of mouth tools like text messaging, Twitter, and Facebook.

While Mashable has done a great How-To Article, and there's a good Slideshare presentation on how to do this, but here's my Social Media event planning playbook on how to create and market an event using social meda.

1. Create the killer event. Let's face it - in this economy, WOM won't work if it's just...blah. Create a topic that gives immediate answers that your audience is facing RIGHT now, or a unique challenge to traditional thinking, or bring in a speaker that is real buzz worthy is critical in stretching out that event message. Who is well... your Dave Chappelle? This is the most critical step in spreading WOM. Ensure you can spread the word- it's worth going!

2. Use your existing network - or find one. Whether you own your own business or market for one, where is your network? On Facebook? LinkedIn? Twitter? Do you have Salesforce.com? Maybe your target audience isn't in your digital or social rolodex, - can you find that subgroup in an existing social network? Are they talking on Twitter? How can you reach them? Keep in mind - you want a wide net, not just to send your message to one network, but to many.

3. Prepare your message. Get a consistent message and brand it. That means putting the event out on Upcoming, Eventful, Facebook events, messaging in your blog and creating event ads and emails to reachout with your peers to spread awareness. A consistent memorable message about your event can really aide WOM marketing. Get ready with widgets and links including hashtags for tracking - all in a one page 'play book' for your sales team and collegues to link to the event.

4. Set up incentives. You can start messaging early with hashtags and twitter by offering free event for the first volunteers, discounts for early birds and exclusives for coming through particularly popular bloggers, and more. This will help you fill the event and gauge how effective your different social channels are doing at attracting attendees.

5. Align your players. By now you have brainstormed on all the ways you can build word-of-mouth about your event. That means you+at least a dozen people who will spread the word on our behalf- in multiple social channels. Match the players with the channels they are best at spreading the word (including blogging, email, and even phone). This may likely mean, you are doing old-school networking - sitting down and selling your event- to have them get the word out for you.

6. Spread the word. Communicate what the event is, why you should go, what the offers are and how to RSVP, and communicate go-live dates for invites and reminders to your network.

7. Show the play-by-play. At the event make sure you have asked people to live tweet and blog your events - in advance. Chances are you may be too busy in the AV details and event itself - and capturing the event details are great in creating buzz around the event.

8. Capture post-event highlights. You can also ensure you've captured the buzz with pics on Flicker, and video highlights on YouTube. These help keep the energy and momentum of your event going even after the guests are out the door.

Aeropostale - whoops!

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:39:27 -0800

Aeropostale launched a new site today, but unfortunately failed to the test the message in Outlook 2007. A good reminder (again) to always test the display of the email campaigns you are sending.

See below:

Timberland - Since You've Been Gone...

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:38:41 -0800

No not a reference to a Kelly Clarkson song, but instead a really strong campaign from Timberland encouraging those that have not purchased and/or visited the site in a while to 'come back'. A great example of a marketer segmenting their audience and building assumingly automated programs targeted at users based on their respective activity level. These types of campaigns as we've seen with our clients can be instrumental in driving overall customer retention and incremental sales.

Do you have a 'win-back' program? You should!

Check out the email below:

Neiman Marcus - Urgency, urgency, urgency!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:02:43 -0800

I love the Neiman Marcus email today creating a very meaningful sense of urgency to act now - e.g. 'buy now!'.

The email promotes a 50% off and Free Shipping two-hour promotion that started today at 11:30AM CST and ended at 1:29PM CST. Equally impressive was the send time for the campaign, a little more than an hour prior to the event occurring - plenty of time to be ready to take advantage of the offer.

While the campaign itself is impressive, the campaign should further reinforce and remind marketers of the opportunity to utilize email to drive a sense of urgency with their subscribers. Historically, campaigns that are positioned as 1-day or limited time have a much higher response. For an active audience a limited hour promotion likely will perform even better and can be used as a way to generate incremental sales.

Here's the creative:

Spam now at 90% - Did you notice?

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:10:59 -0800

This morning CNET had an article on how Spam now accounts for 90.4% of all email sent. The report from Symantec is clearly reputable and I'm sure based on very scientific data. That being said, I was surprised by how 'un-surprised' and really un-phased I was by the percentage. Perhaps it is because I like most individuals have become numb to the daily exercise of upon login selecting the 'spam' that I see and deleting it. I've actually felt that my own percentage of spam has decreased over the past few months. Perhaps that is due to our corporate spam filters or simply due to my ability to delete the messages faster - thus paying less attention to them.

The overall point being that as individuals continue to become numb to spam -- real spam -- the spam that you know you did not subscribe to and that is unintelligible in its design and offer -- we as marketers need to heighten our own efforts to ensure that our email campaigns do not suffer the same fate; that of numbness to respond.

What are you doing to ensure your subscribers do not become numb?
- Have you re-designed the creative for your campaigns?
- Have you adjusted your overall strategy (targeting, content, subject lines, delivery times)?

Or are you in a rut of send on x day - same day, same time, same content, same subscribers, same generic offer, etc...

Beware the rut of numbness! If you need help getting out of the trap, let me know.

To see the full article from CNET, see below:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10249172-83.html

Academy Awards - Whoops: I forgot to test my email campaign!

Tue, 26 May 2009 15:02:11 -0800

Sometimes we hit the 'send' button before we intend to do so. One would assume that was the feeling generated at the Academy Awards today when they sent the email below with the subject line:

"TEST HTML Email for Membership Mailing"

To be quickly followed by a "Correction" email - sent very quickly, as in 24 minutes after the original send...

Below are both emails for posterity:

First email - note the broken images and incorrect subject line - don't forget to TEST!

Second email - "The Correction"

Of course there was a third email which featured the appropriate subject line and images that functioned; however, we'll leave that one out.

CircuitCity.com - Brand Re-Launch Campaign

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:05:01 -0800

CircuitCity.com sent a "re-launch" email today announcing the re-launch of their website under new ownership. The email campaign does a nice job of accomplishing several items facing a company coming out of bankruptcy under new ownership; including:

Branding: Consistent use of the Circuit City brand and a nice introduction of the new brand - Systemax. I also like the treatment of the "Re-launch Announcement" - it is descriptive and clear.

Letter of Introduction: Nicely embedded letter explaining to the subscribers why they are receiving the message, what happened, and what to expect moving forward.

Subscription Info: Clear language depicting why the new brand is mailing the subscriber and what they can do if they'd like to be taken off of the list.

Promotions: As a part of the announcement, they included a few promotions encouraging the subscriber to give the new company a chance.

Overall - a great a message and great learning for other brands to follow if they are in a similar situation.

Below is the message:

Kodak Gallery - Favorite Email Creative of the Day

Tue, 26 May 2009 08:58:48 -0800

I really love the Kodak Gallery email creative.

Kodak Gallery is promoting their 'Mini Photo Book' and the design does an amazing job of highlighting the photo book in use. Additionally the four call-out boxes do a great job of jumping off the page and highlighting the critical value points tied to the book.

In respect to the creative itself, note that you too can utilize these best practices:

Call-out boxes/bullets that break the linear structure of the design
Sharpness of images contrasted against fuzzy images - the contrast is key
Clear, consistent action buttons (e.g. "Start Your Book" & "Order Prints")

Great, great design!

See for yourself:

Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Fundraising via Facebook

Tue, 19 May 2009 16:09:44 -0800

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure has a great email today promoting their fundraising application within Facebook. It is essentially a nice way for users to extend their fundraising efforts through their network of friends.

As many marketers start to adopt additional integration points with the leading social media sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc), they will also start to utilize email as a way of driving channel adoption. From adoption, marketers will turn to utilizing email for promotion usage and analyzing performance to fine-tune and improve their program through segmentation, personalization, and sophistication.

Today many marketers are simply focused on presence and adoption; however, it will serve them well to be thinking broader in terms of ultimately how to monetize these social media applications. This example by Susan G. Komen for the Cure is a testament to a marketer thinking several steps ahead.

See for yourself:

Kodak - Customer Generated Content

Thu, 07 May 2009 11:33:53 -0800

I love the email from Kodak that comes out monthly. The email campaign selects a customer submitted picture as the "Kodak Moment of the Month". In this example, a photo from Kodak customer Ellen S. Whittle shows a high school JV football game tackle in the rain. The picture captures the essence of high school football and has an amazing splash of water from the field.

Many marketers have been using customer reviews - another form of customer generated content on their web site and more recently in emails. Not too many marketers though have created a way for customers to submit content that can be re-purposed and used for their marketing needs.

Kudos to Kodak for taking it a step further! And be on the look-out for next month's "moment" featuring a 'spectacular travel photo'.

Here's the campaign: