Email Yogi

Five tips from successful digital marketers

2013-05-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Stay in touch with your consumers...

As an online marketer, you are probably well versed in the way your web store works and how your products or services differ from competitors. But do you understand the mentality of your customers – do you know why people buy from your web store? Do you know the process from the buyer’s perspective?

Here are some best practices I have gleaned from consumer surveys, industry research and interviews with some very successful digital marketers.

1) Thou shall Scale – Your images cannot be broken, landing pages must work, emails have to be delivered on time.

2) Navigation and Clarity – The front end should be clean, easy to navigate and have enough detail. This includes the usability on landing pages.

3) Solicit and Share Feedback – Make the most of your feedback mechanisms – comments, praises and issues or resolution. Capitalize on social media options; these are excellent ways to expand your reach.

4) Audit – Remove any obstacles to the conversion process. Test for simplicity, view emails, browse offers, click, choose and checkout.

5) Emphasize Security and Trust – Are your emails, personal and secure? Work toward these goals, then publicize that they are. Become an informative, trusted source for your consumer. Be aware of PCI and FFIEC compliance.

Enjoy the long holiday weekend and good luck with your marketing campaigns.

Five key challenges and opportunities with Mobile

2013-05-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

Mobile is universal...

Mobile offers you the opportunity for real time engagement. With smart phones becoming smarter - mobile merges email, and phone. Additionally, it gives the consumer instant access to social media channels. This means that a business can connect in real time. Here are five issues to consider.

Smart phones are only getting smarter forcing more people to get one, and at times more than one. More people forget their wallet at the airport security line than their smart phone. It is a consumers’ constant companion – even before, during, and after meetings. That is why it is important to serve up offers in real time on mobile devices.

The consumer also has access to their social media channels, making real time engagement more effective. Here are five challenges to consider for mobile.

1. Consumer Acceptance – Mobile offers have the ability to target a consumer on a one to one basis, yet there still exists the 'horde' marketing mentality. 'Horde' translates to as many offers to as many people most of the time. Instead of applying this strategy you should focus on personalization, which is driven through the consumers preferences.

2. Emerging and Transitioning Technologies – Mobile offers have changed from being designed for flip phones to smart phones. Applications that are being built for the flip phone as well as the smart phone are sometimes delivered without any real testing. It is vital to test your applications so you are assured that they work correctly and are mobile friendly. You need to get it right the first time! Yes, you get fewer second chances to make a first impression.

3. Cost of Usage and Bandwidth – Hefty fees on the transfer of data coupled with real network bandwidth challenges (my “smart phone” still goes blank for periods of time in New York City) are going to be the gauge on driving user engagement. The cost will have to come down, bandwidth will have to increase, and the applications will have to be more efficient to keep users engaged. Think back to the “old days” of new client server technologies so you minimize the back and forth movement of consumer data.

4. Regulation and Laws – Do you know about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act? Before you capture your users preferences, make sure your consumer has agreed to receive mobile messaging. Make sure you are aware of the regulations and laws to avoid problems.

5. SPAM – You have to be wary, as this is the easiest way to increase regulation, choke bandwidth, increase costs, flood the consumers in-box, consequently reducing consumer acceptance. Poor Papa John’s – their brick and mortar stores took the liberty to message consumers without an express opt-in. There is a lawsuit and I am not sure what the final verdict is.

Proven Tips: 10 Ways to Enhance Your Email Program

2013-05-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

10 tips to enhance your email marketing

Here are 10 things you can do to enhance your email marketing program.

1. Welcome Emails: You have to acknowledge a consumer signing up, by sending a welcome message immediately. Follow that up with a couple more emails so you build a relationship with your consumer and create a conversation with them. If you do not do this you are going to have a problem for future campaigns, and you may not be able to convert them into a future customer.

2. Private Email Club: If you compare recipients across campaigns, you will see that there are only a handful of recipients that consistently open and click. Treat these people differently by putting them in your First Responders Club. Give them special treatment by letting them receive offers before you send the campaign out to the rest of you list. This First Responders Club could evolve further, maybe even a Private Email Club – something that could include a paid membership for personalized emails with offers sent before the remainder of the list.

3. Bring out your Dead: Take the people who do not open, click, or order from your emails, and remove them from your list. You should not send them emails on a weekly basis, instead send them emails every month or so. Perhaps this will make them a regular future customer.

4. Test, Test, and Test: Take the time to test your campaigns. Test everything from subject lines to the content of the email. Conduct your test on no more than 10% of your list before you send the real thing out. Try about three different types of campaigns, and send the most successful one out to the rest of your list.

5. Segment for Success: Avoid constantly bombarding your customers with email, but instead focus on sending them emails that are relevant to them. This will help boost open rates and orders.

6. Train your people: The best investment for your email program is for you to train your people. Start with the people who talk to customers and prospects, and make them put a list together of reasons why people ought to sign up for your email program. Listen to what is being said to prospects on the phone, and if you can, ask the customer or prospect for feedback on what they thought about the solicitation for email. Your team needs to understand why you need email, you need to continue to give them updates, listen to their concerns and make it consistent across channels.

7. Keep Asking: You never know enough! Start up different conversations with your customers. Start from the beginning with the sign up process, by asking them for more than their email id. Insert a link in every email, soliciting feedback from your subscribers about your company, your service and give them a comment field. Make sure you act upon this feedback because you want to make sure that the customers are not ignored. Plan a quarterly email asking them about the style of your communiqués – ask them for direct feedback on ways you can improve your email program. In fact, why not ask them what they would like to see in print. In addition to asking, leverage their actual behavior; compare it with what they said they wanted and use this click data to further improve your email program.

8. Speed and Service: Email is quick, easy, and can provide great service. As a customer service representative many years ago, I enjoyed anticipating events and freaking people out by showing up with what they needed almost immediately. Email allows you to get into the consumers inbox in almost immediately. Use this speed to make sure you are providing a service. Take every single customer service communiqué within your organization and see how you can improve it through your email program.

9. Tie in Social Media: User Generated Content is huge; it gives you the third party endorsement your product or service needs. Take this feedback and incorporate it into different social media channels (blogs, videos, etc.) Do whatever you can to make sure people are familiar with you.

10. Don't forget Mobile: Capture the consumers’ mobile number and use it to give them things that you promised. Mobile on a smarter phone is more personal, can be accessed anywhere and is immediate. You should look for ways to leverage it into your dialogue. And for all that is viewed on the smart mobile device - remember you need content for different types of devices.

The future of email marketing lies in a marketer’s ability to create an interactive conversation with their clients and prospects. Leverage your knowledge about the customer, make your people part of your process and excel at service – it is as simple as that!

'The New Inbox': Mobile's Impact on Email Marketing and Social Media

2013-05-21T00:00:00.001-04:00

Think mobile, think social, think engagement...

I had an opportunity to share the stage with Simms Jenkins at SES New York in March, where we shared best practices on email and mobile. Simms gave me a copy of his new book - "The New Inbox" - and I want to highlight a few things.

With more than 40 percent of consumers checking their email messages on the mobile smartphone, Simms offers a few tips to ensure success. He calls them new tricks, technology, and savvy testing.

With the messaging device being mobile and ever-present with the consumer, businesses have the opportunity to conduct "right time messaging - right message on the right device." And if you do this well, your opportunity to connect and engage goes up - you can measure this by a read, a click, or a purchase.

Here are three of the seven ideas from this section.

First, smartphone users are more likely to read emails than to make calls.

Second, it takes the reliance on mobile even further by highlighting that people read more email on a mobile browser than any other browser. I know I use my mobile device to filter out my content and then perhaps use another "laptop-based" browser to respond to other messages.

Third, Simms shares some statistics of consumers deleting email or unsubscribing from email based on the mobile messaging experience - proving that how you render on mobile really matters.

As you build your mobile strategy, Simms offers five key considerations.

Subject lines are really important, as they set the tone for the rest of the message.
Your primary call-to-action should be a button and not a link.
Your message should deliver value. Think about this one; you have taken consumers' precious time to look at your message on a mobile device - make the message worth their time.
Talk to your audience as if you know something about them (aka, be relevant).
Test, learn, retest, and keep learning.

Simms highlights a chapter in his book on ideal ways to leverage email and social media to drive consumer engagement - he calls them the new best practices.

In another chapter, Simms talks about "surefire ways to get your emails read" by focusing on a few things - from field, subject lines, personalization, and length of campaigns. I took the liberty of summarizing the entire chapter - which is full of many practical tips and a lot more detail.

The book offers advice to digital marketers serving both B2C and B2B industries. The ideas are pragmatic and very relevant to enterprises of different sizes. Simms actually dedicated a chapter to small-and-medium-sized businesses.

From my personal experiences I would really like brands to leverage mobile to both send digital receipts and engage via social media. This real-time interaction will add value to your email marketing program and help build up on user-generated content.

Mobile payments, mobile preferences, and mobile messaging will play an ever-more impactful role in consumer communications. Get Simms' book for yourself - it offers real examples and advice on how to grow your list, create better emails, what to test, and how to drive more sales.

I first wrote this article for ClickZ magazine.

Seven Steps to Rejuvenate Your Marketing Database

2013-05-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

May your interactions bloom...

A hard look at digital marketing programs shows an increase in marketing activity by businesses and a proportionate level of consumer disengagement. This happens for a variety of reasons.

The consumer is barraged by messaging across channels – from your business and others. Some of the other reasons include the consumer having real time access to messaging through mobile, lots of social discussions, and the consumers’ ability to turn you off at any time.

Your messaging needs to engage. You need to make sure that you are communicating with relevance. Your marketing database is what will help you create this relevance. Here are seven key considerations to rejuvenate your marketing database.

1 - Create a Roadmap - You know where you are and what you can do today. Start by listing where you would like to be and start coming up with small steps in between. Use cases will go a long way in helping you come up with tactical steps.

2 - Focus on the Business Needs - Put forth a list of those who use your marketing database and ask them about what information they need and how they want to use the information. In the world of use cases, this means you are listing the actors (users) and asking them to list their use cases (tasks) on how they would use the marketing database.

3 - Find the Gaps - You will find that you are missing information, have duplicate information, take too long to update information, or it is really hard to find the information. Additionally, users may not be able to find the information in different places compatible with each other. You consequently need to highlight these gaps and start improving the quality of data (or put it on the roadmap).

4 - Design your Reports - Do this first as people will want to see the information in a particular format. Once you start getting people sold on the look and feel of what the reports are, you will find them much more amenable to changes that might be required later.

5 - Educate your Users - Teach them how to use the database. I usually recommend a three-step approach. I ask the users to write down specific use cases on what information they need from the system. Next I ask them to point it out in the reports (step 4). Once they have done that, I encourage them to click through to find the appropriate data. These three steps can now be captured as part of the user manual and should be kept available for online support as well.

6 - Make the Database Accessible - If people can access your database to get the reports that they desire - they are more likely to use it. From a performance perspective, limit the number of power users (users who can run any query) so as to not reduce the performance of your system. Pre-run popular reports so that the information is available to those that need it. Also, work with the power users to add to the repository of reports and keep evaluating (and removing) reports that are not used.

7 - Make Reports Mobile - Allow your key users to have access to summary reports on their mobile devices. This is power messaging at its best and it really helps to rejuvenate the utility of information and your marketing database.

Proven and Practical Social Media Tips for Credit Unions (others too)

2013-05-16T00:00:00.000-04:00

Make friends and keep them...

Most organizations go through a great deal of effort to convert prospects into “customers.” For Credit Unions, the challenge is even greater as Credit Unions strive to get consumers to become members.

The overall cost of conversion can be quite high – TV, radio, bill-boards, print, direct marketing, online – it all adds up. The prospect finally walks into your branch (or store), or calls your call center, or even fills out a form online. You have done a great job bringing them in, and you did convert them.

Congratulations! What next?

Your challenge now is to stay connected and engaged with the new member. Social media can help, and here are a few suggestions on best to do it.

For starters, engage the member in a welcome stream of messages, an interactive dialogue that is best delivered across channels, specially your social media channels. When we say social media channels, we are talking about everything from Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, a blog, YouTube, and even LinkedIn. It helps if someone at your credit union is specifically tasked with managing this process and these channels.

Give them valuable information, insight, & tips. The most important thing to remember is to “EXCHANGE INFORMATION.” Have them start filling out a personal profile form (Facebook style with likes and dislikes).

While they are doing this, ask them if they have any questions. Keep in mind that you don’t want to make the process cumbersome by asking them all questions up front. Instead, you should be engaging them in three to five conversations. Ideally, you should be engaging them on the same “profile form” across channel.

As you learn more about your member and your member learns about the value your credit union brings to them, remind the member about where they can find useful information from your organization.

They already have your web site and phone number, they may even know about all your physical locations. Now make sure you clearly spell out your social media channels. List your social media channels and the purpose of each of these channels. Remind them that it could be another branch in terms of gathering information and learning. Make it easy for your member to be aware of all your member services.

Offer your members clarity as to why they should follow you on Twitter. Encourage your members to find “important and useful” information on your blog. Enthuse your members by making them show your stuff off on Facebook.

Now do three things on these social media channels – listen, respond and learn.

1 - Keep your eyes open for trends, member questions, and member suggestions.

2 - Respond to these in the best possible manner - respond on the phone if you have to.

3 - Most importantly do one more thing – you have to keep adapting to what the member needs from you – you are trying to learn from them so you can adapt your program to meet their needs. Always keep learning.

Your social media channels can be used to grow your sphere of influence with your members. Not only are you going to be able to engage your existing members, you are hoping that your members do their bit to carry your brand out to their contacts.

Five tips to integrate and enhance your social media engagement

2013-05-15T00:00:00.000-04:00

Your social media success lies in your ability to “integrate” social into your real and virtual consumer transactions. It is like an online mall. You have visitors that are walking through your mall. Your success lies in luring them into your “store”, engaging them, and keep them coming back for more. Here are five specific things you should be doing with your approach.

1. You need to brand and promote each of your social media sites appropriately. Let the consumer know what to expect from each site and allow them to create a personalized experience with social media. Give them the reasons they should interact with your brand and leverage each interaction to continuously identify their unique preferences so you can keep enhancing your offers to them.

2. A coupon can drive people to complete a sale. An ad in the paper can drive people to come invest in a certificate of deposit. But you can do more with social media. What if you “Tweeted” about an article on your blog with links to Facebook where people now shared their personal experiences? You will be able to drive more engagement with this approach and drive other acquaintances in.

3. You need to nurture your social media networks by soliciting feedback - good and bad. Listen and respond to both concerns and suggestions. As you build up your opinions, people tend to pay more attention (search engines do too.) Additionally you can establish a group of experts who could turn into your go to team as you strive to respond to questions.

4. You have to build up your expertise. The consumer can find an answer to so many things from so many sources. They can do it expeditiously with social media. Your channels need to be able to answer things in even more detail. In fact, you should even consider empowering your touch points (including your people) with this additional data so your company looks like the expert.

5. You have to be real. This is not a reality show but it is about being genuine and helpful. You don't have to be cute; you simply have to care.

Three tips to be a Sherpa to your Customers

2013-05-13T00:00:00.000-04:00

Keep your customers engaged...

Businesses will continue to endeavor to attract new prospects, convert them into customers, and try to retain these customers for as long as possible. If they do this well, they can even get their existing customers to become ardent brand ambassadors.

To be successful your business has to remain connected by keeping the communications going – across all relevant channels. Here are three things you can do to help guide your recipients and stay connected.

1. Strive to know more about them

Learn more from those you serve by asking them to share their preferences including their aspirations with you. This information will come in handy when it comes time to deliver personalized offers to them.

2. Your customer should be taking the lead

Encourage your recipients to create specific scenarios. Retailers can inspire customers and prospects to create a wish list of things they like. A realtor can create virtual tours of houses for the customer as well as send them pictures. This will also allow customers to share with their friends (perhaps future prospects). A bank can encourage its customers to talk about their kids, and what type of education the kids might be pursuing. A travel company could ask customers to put together a list of “must visit” places.

3. Learn from them and listen to them

Track your recipients closely across all channels, including social media. It is important follow up as well! After observing and learning what their interests are and use this information in surveys. Train your customer service team to observe, respond, and track social conversations. Use this in your messaging to the consumer.

Maintain engagement through relevant messaging delivered via email, mobile, social media and through other direct marketing channels. The more you know them, the better you can serve them.

Seven Steps to Jumpstart your Email Program and Maximize Engagement

2013-05-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

Keep your doors open and serve them well...

1. Focus on your list

You cannot leave your list inactive; you have to keep the activity level up. Watch out for the non-openers and prioritize bringing them into the interaction fold. You can do this through contests, direct marketing programs, and through social media. Staying active through these ways will drive email and mobile sign-ups. One thing to remember is making sure your sign up page stands out so it is very easy to find.

2. Know more

Ask for information that is important for you, and appropriate for them. Make it personal and easy to provide. Facebook is a great example of this. Test out their responses to validate the preferences being provided.

3. Always segment

Never send everyone the same campaign. At a minimum, create three segments per campaign – customers, non-customers, and a small control group. Now gradually push yourself toward a greater number of segments.

4. Always test, and keep testing

Maximize the segmentation (#3) and incorporate A/B testing – start with offers and subject lines. If your list is too small, create an internal contest with your team and bet on the subject line you think will be the top performer. In phase two – test out the content within the email.

5. Check and double-check your copy

Is the message you are sending out clear and to the point? Make sure you are aware of all your offers and your call to action is clear! Have others check out your copy and call to action – it seems a little too obvious to the campaign creator.

6. Clean landing

Keep your landing page in mind. Make sure you test offers on this page before the real deal.

7. Evaluate immediately

Look at your numbers right away. Do not wait around to analyze them. Use the data received to help you in the future. Use the numbers from your A/B test to send out your campaign to the rest of your list.

Five Important Clicks to Track

2013-05-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Track that click, track that click...

Click data is vital for your email campaigns. It helps you track your recipients so you can target them better. Use the tracking to probe recipient interests and then personalize future campaigns based on click activity

A mistake made by many marketers when analyzing clicks, is they only look at one or too few campaigns. This is not a good representation of your recipients’ behavior because of a number of different factors. First, not all recipients open every campaign, next – “fat fingering” on mobile will give you incorrect data. To get more accurate results you have to look at click data across a few campaigns.

Here are five important clicks for you to leverage with suggestions for each one of them.

1. Transaction Click

Thank them for transacting with you – they may have purchased a product or a service. Along with a thank you email, attach a survey about their purchase. In the survey you can ask them to provide feedback about the product, or service. This information will help you with your future campaigns. You can make this more effective by seeking this survey on social media. Here are some tips on how to incite a two way dialogue.

2. Clicked but did not Transact

A consumer might have expressed interest in your product or service by clicking on the link. Use the abandoned shopping cart methodology to follow up with them. Send them a personalized reminder as a follow up. Your likelihood of inciting a transaction goes up.

3. Bunch of Clicks

When your recipient clicks on a few links within your email campaign you should consider adding those clicks to the recipients’ preferences. Use these preferences as a way to know your consumers better. As a follow up, you can put out an email featuring a very personal email message, as you can build up the content through the preferences provided by the recipient.

4. Unsubscribe Click

If a consumer un-subscribes from your email program, ask them why. This feedback will help improve your future campaigns. Also, as a parting gift - give them an opportunity to look at your “bargain bin” or “special exclusive information”. This personalized send-off might bring them back to your email list.

5. No Click

This is concerning, but you still have to look for ways to grab your recipients’ interest and keep them engaged. Play with your subject lines and try to get them interested via other channels. The key is to look for ways to solicit feedback. If you do not make the effort to find out why they are not clicking, you will lose them forever.

Creating an Interactive Conversation thru Email and Social Media

2013-05-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

Open the door to more engagement...

An “engaged” consumer is a connected consumer. So if you grab your recipients’ attention when they are interested in your brand and you can carry on the conversation further – you will excel!

You can use both email and social media to build up on this conversation. Here are five specific interaction points for you to drive your conversation home.

1. During the “welcome”

When someone signs up for your email program, or joins your Facebook page, you should not send them a generic welcome message. Instead you want to take the time to personalize the message. Perhaps you could add pictures, a video, or an article about your product – personalizing it to the consumers’ specific needs. Make it exciting giving them a reason to look forward to your next message.

2. When you say “thank you”

After your consumer transacts with your brand be quick to say thank you. Once again, do not just send a generic thank you message. Do something that will remind them about their relationship with you and will encourage interaction. Encourage them to provide feedback to create engagement and help you better your product or service. If you do this on social media you can help spread the word.

3. Try to know them even better

If you are unsure of your consumers’ interests make sure you track them closely. You can send them multiple offers and see what they click on so you become aware of their interests. Preferences are built in two ways – first, when the user provides them to you; second, when you observe you’re your user does.

4. Send them an exclusive invitation, make them “feel special”

Not all customers are the same – some are high value and some are extremely valuable. Invite some of your better customers to join your inner circle by soliciting their feedback. Ask them how they are using a particular product or service and use their feedback as “advice” for the rest of your list. This elevated status will enable you to create brand ambassadors.

5. Use digital messaging for the important “stuff”

Mail your statements, receipts, important alerts, etc. via your digital channels. Email is personal, social media can be public, and mobile is when it is of great urgency. Get your consumer to accept the importance of the digital channel. But do not forget to pay attention to what they are saying. No “do-not-replies” or “this mailbox is not monitored” or “our social media channel is only open from 9 – 5.” If your consumer realizes that you are open for business across channel, they will be more willing to communicate.

Very Important Consideration:

Remember interaction is key and interaction is a two-way dialogue.

Valuable tips to show your customers the value of your email program

2013-05-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

Show them the value, treat them well...

Collecting email addresses is an ongoing challenge for marketers. This is because most people automatically think when you ask for their email address, that they will get a barrage of unwanted emails from you, aka SPAM! Train your channels to quickly and clearly state out your value proposition so your consumer is comfortable in sharing their email address.

Your website is usually the first place you look to collect email addresses. Tell the subscriber exactly why they should sign up for email and what message they should expect. List three to five great reasons why people should sign up for your email. Provide them with an explanation – here is what Delta Airlines does with their sign up page.

A second place is your front line customer service staff. If you were to ask your front-line people why a customer should provide their e-mail – you will be surprised by the amount of different answers you get. You should make sure that Customer Service knows why a customer should provide an email address, both for the customer's benefit and for the benefit of your company.

If you are not already giving customers the value reasons why they should sign up, what can you do? Write down ten good reasons why people should subscribe to your newsletter; then post it on your website, list it for your front line staff and share it with your co-workers.

Try to give your customers or prospects something of true value in exchange for their email address. Maybe provide a sneak preview of a new product, a member’s only sale, valuable information, or a discount coupon that can be used immediately. Convince your co-workers and front line staff of the importance of e-mail address collection, perhaps even creating an incentive for the employee collecting the most addresses in a month.

Make your sign up process compelling by letting the consumer look forward to receiving your campaigns. If you can show your customers the value they gain from signing up for your email, and then deliver that value, you'll find those objections of giving up the email address easily handled.

Tips from top brands on purposeful communications

2013-05-06T00:00:00.000-04:00

A book with a very powerful commitment by Joey Reiman

I recently had the opportunity to attend the first Global Purpose Summit hosted by BrightHouse. The meaning of "purpose" is to have a mission that is clearly dedicated to helping brands identify their messaging or their story.

Joey Reiman, CEO of BrightHouse, shared the story of "purpose" as the guiding force to help brands relay their messaging correctly for internal and external audiences. Joey also stressed "a focus on the core," which will leave your messaging timeless and powerful.

The tips shared by the speakers at the Global Purpose Summit provided many business pointers, and also many different ways that brands can be heard and felt. I personally feel that there is a lot of value in assigning these same principles to a company's social media programs.

Our star-studded panel of speakers included: Jay Gould, president and CEO of American Standard Brands; Mark Ketchum, board member at Kraft Foods and former president and CEO of Newell Rubbermaid; Stuart Kronauge, SVP at Coca-Cola Brands; and Elizabeth Nientimp, director of brand design at General Mills (aka the Cereal Lady). (Google American Standard Brands, if you do not know what it is - it will tell you about the importance of branding!)

Our moderator for the panel was Josh Levs, an award-winning broadcast journalist from CNN. Here are some of the key quotes from the panel for us to consider:

Your brand message needs to be clear on social media. General Mills' theme is about "nourishing," Coke is about "refreshing," American Standard is about "cleanliness," and Newell Rubbermaid is about "understanding" the person using their products.

Businesses need to think about the brand message and ensure that they are able to communicate this via social media. You need to remind consumers about the relationship to your product. Elizabeth said it well, "and if you have purpose, you shouldn't have to shout it out." It does not help a brand to keep putting out updates on offers, as it turns customers off.

Stuart said they do not want their employees to think, "I just work in an office supply store." They need a sense of purpose and the ability to communicate that sense of purpose. The key to success is to make sure that your "sense of purpose" is understood by your employees, as they will help carry your brand messaging through to your consumers.

Jay's plain talk was poignant when he said that when you link your business to purpose, the numbers will follow. "When your company has strong culture, then all follows! Value is created by a strong culture."

Mark Ketchum spoke about brands using social media as a way to research what their consumers are doing and then leveraging that information into their messaging. His simple pointers on social media were an eye-opener to many about leveraging these user communities.

There was a lot of discussion about "being open" with employees and this made me think about the businesses that create a mission statement for their social endeavors without really involving their own people. It is important for brands to identify what they stand for and share this openly via different forms of media (including social media).

Rilla Delorier, the CMO of SunTrust Bank, spoke about marrying business with purpose and also showed people that it can be used to drive commercial value. SunTrust started a social media initiative that it named "Live Solid," which has turned out to be a great way to connect and share messaging with the bank's consumers. Take a look at the videos from SunTrust's YouTube page. It has the short version and the longer, behind-the-scenes version - a very good way to carry forth your message to your consumer.

Josh Levs shared a few tips from an article published on CNN about ways to grow a business. Three of his five tips on growth include:

Having a social purpose
Investing in employees
Acting as a role model

Again, these are things that can be articulated very well via social media. Think about your cause and what you can do to incorporate cause into your marketing mix year-round.

Our closing speaker was indeed the surprise that was going to blow us away. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, shared his grandfather's vision about "purpose." He talked about how digital media and social media have opened the window for us to look at people all over the world. He told us to, "Be authentic, invest in your people, and let this sense of purpose drive how you communicate with your consumers."

Superb and Disdainful Service: All under the same roof

2013-05-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

The view from my room was phenomenal...

I stayed at a very nice resort. My check-in experience was inspirational. The service in their lounge was impeccable. As I sat in the lobby they would always rush over to get me a drink or ask if I needed something. My plate in the restaurant would barely be empty when they would run up and offer me more. Of course, I was always searched like everyone else (security reasons) as I entered the property, sometimes a little too aggressively, most times with disdain or contempt. If I hung around the lobby I was always asked what I was doing there - once they knew who I was it always changed the way they treated me.

It was the best of service, it was the worst of service. It was almost like being two different people. The key challenge was getting them to recognize me, once they did it was fine.

Online gives us a great opportunity to recognize and reward the customer. You know their preferences and can anticipate their transactions. But what if you do not recognize them (they cleared their cache)? Should you not anticipate such situations?

You should always come up with unique back-up offers or ways to guide the customer into your site, so you could recognize who they are. You can do this by making sure that messages are refreshed (not a few months old) and that they make sense - that they are relevant to the customers transactional path.

Three simple things to consider - first put forth a sign on your site that says - "tell us who you are so we can serve you better." Second, do offer something of value to the "identified consumer." Third - be genuine about treating them better - genuine service goes a long way.

Avoid Channel Mayhem aka When your channels do not talk to each other

2013-05-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

The pizza was absolutely awesome...

It was just past 5.00 pm, my mailbox received a tempting invite from a pizza place - $7.99 large inlcudes one free topping - pick up only! The image was phenomenal - it inspired me to order one. The price was pretty good too. I called the store, placed the order and drove by on the way home. I was really impressed by the timing of the email too.

As I drove into the parking lot, I saw a huge bill board advertising the same large pizza with three toppings for $6.99. The store called it their Monday special. I asked to speak to the store manager and was not too surprised to learn that he had no idea about what corporate marketing was doing to promote his store. It took a few clicks and of course, I did get the cheaper pizza, also, they had to bake me a new one as the one with one topping had to be tossed.

Five tips for digital marketers:

Make sure that your stores or branches are on the email distribution list
Require your employees to pay attention to your campaigns
Try to coordinate your specials to coincide with store or branch events
Why not consider an upsell for the follow up to go to the consumers in-box
Use the store sign to get people to sign up for email specials!

Five Tips to Keep Cause in Your Marketing

2013-04-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

Consumers care about the softer side of a brand and do pay attention to a "cause." You cannot just wait for October (breast cancer awareness month), you have to keep your signs for cause year round. In fact, you have to learn to tell your story.

Rather than the traditional feature, function, and benefit; it is now a focus on psychology, "cause", and benefit to the "cause." The implication is that our brands product or service is good, here is a "cause" that is very good, please use our product as well as it will help contribute to the "cause."

Here are five ways to apply "cause" marketing to your online marketing mix:

1. Design your branding to include the "cause" standing out

2. Make the contribution clear - you are making them aware of the cause or that your company contributes to the cause

3. Highlight the impact that the consumer can make

4. Create one or a few campaigns to build "cause" awareness, then make it an icon or a spotlight on your campaigns

5. Dedicate a landing page to carry forth your message.

Do not just do it to drive sales, be genuine and talk about your accomplishments. Share your brands purpose with your consumers by telling your story. As BrightHouse says so eloquently, "Purpose allows you to make a difference in people's life. It creates commercial success through social value."Your cause should be tightly linked to your purpose. Good Karma will come!!!

Take a look at the video put together by SunTrust Bank - it talks about "Retirement for Three."

Successful Case Stuy: Facebook, Email, and Reviving Your List

2013-04-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

Lure them in and treat them very well...

A multi-channel retailer offered everyone on their list an incentive to come shop – web, call center, or store. Buyers were given a discount, non-buyers were offered a little more. Even if you did not buy, you could win something. You spun for free shipping or gift with purchase. If you didn't want anything you could even get a small gift if you paid for shipping and updated your preferences. There was also a grand prize winner. You had to tell them a little bit about yourself, and of course, all offers were e-mailed to you.

You were even given the option to share your incentive on Facebook. A "free-shipping" turned into a "free-shipping + gift" if you shared with your friends on Facebook. If one of your friends from Facebook were to purchase, they too were asked for information about their preferences.

The sequence of events that led to this were quite interesting. You got a direct mail piece at home or a phone call. They provided you with an access code with a timed incentive to respond. You went online – input your offer code and were e-mailed a confirmation link.

This confirmation link asked you to provide preferences – a few questions anda big thank you with a coupon you could redeem immediately. If you did not open, click, or use the coupon you got a gentle reminder.

You were even encouraged to call their call center or visit one of their stores with your coupon. Their employees could help find you your perfect gift! Those who purchased items were encouraged to write about their purchases on the merchants Facebook page. If you posted it on Facebook, you were given another offer and the ability to share the offer with your friends.

Prior to doing this this merchant was averaging response rates of less than 5% open rates with a dismal click-through. They were also averaging three communiqués a week. With this coordinated cross channel blitz they reduced their offers to one a week and have enjoyed open rates of more than 25% with high conversion rates and even higher engagement.

The post purchase survey and subsequent messaging from the customer revealed that customers now felt like they were part of the club!

Effective, proven strategies to use subject lines (email and social media)

2013-04-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

A bright sign with a clear message (even if not spelt correctly) will draw them in...

It might seem like common sense, but the number of marketers who come up with subject lines as an after thought is astonishing. The subject line of your email is critical in driving engagement after the email reaches your consumers in-box.

It is the first thing your customer or prospect sees and is usually what motivates them to open and read the rest of your message.

The subject line is also one of the easiest things to test in email. There is no hassle of creating new content, just splitting up a portion of your audience and trying out different subject lines to see which one gets the best reaction.

A best practice is to try out three to five different subject lines. You should encourage different members of your team to vote on subject lines, try different themes like esoteric, informative, and even intrigue. Try subject lines with personalization, and ones without. Whatever you do, make them sell the rest of your campaign.

Send out the test and see which subject drives more opens. Test it through by checking if the open leads to a click or the next best step for you. Now use that subject line for the rest of your campaign. As cost effective as it is to send emails, you cannot afford to not test subject lines on a regular basis to see what will work best for your brand.

Do not just test your subject lines via email. Here are two approaches to test and enhance - first, think about getting your social media following to vote on "tomorrows" subject line. Next, show them which subject line actually won.

Keep using the "unused" subject lines to promote your digital content. Remember - headlines drive people to pick up magazines, read articles, and the same will hold true for your digital messages.

How do you measure the success of your digital marketing program?

2013-04-25T00:00:00.000-04:00

You need to keep evaluating your program...

While there are many formulas around Return on Investment (ROI) per campaign, ROI on the program, reduction in direct mailing costs, speed to launch to market, or even consumer engagement (I am sure there are few dozen more) – the best way to gauge the success of your own program is through some introspective questioning.

As we talk to different marketers – here are five measures that a lot of marketers agree on –

Cheap

Quick

Track

Personalize

Multi-channel

1 – Cheaper than paper – your company does email, mobile, and social media because direct mail costs are higher and digital helps subsidize those costs.

2 – Quick way to communicate – it is a very fast way to get your campaigns out of your door into the prospects inbox.

3 – Track effectiveness of campaigns – you are concerned about measuring success of your other channel campaigns, so you are interested in seeing what is really working effectively.

4 – Personalize your messaging – you want to track what people are doing, place them in segments, and personalize each message uniquely (or strive to) towards recipients.

5 – Ability to leverage information across channels – you are using email as a means to build preference repositories and create a two way dialogue with recipients across channel.

Assign yourself a number for each one of the bullets above – most marketers have moved from two to three and some are beginning to reach stage four. There are a few companies that are in stage five.

Usually, the higher your number; the higher the level of your sophistication.

Drawing Your Consumers In With Intrigue

2013-04-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

Look Mom, two parrots!

"Save on your taxes: Avoid these 7 IRA blunders."

I first saw this on a direct mail piece to my home. It was from my financial institution but I really did not pay much attention to it. Then, I saw it again - this time in an email. I skimmed through the list of blunders and soon forgot about it. Three days before tax day, my e-statement from my financial institution inspired me to go read the entire blog article.

The article had lots of detail, was very well organized, and even offered an interactive calculator that allowed me to assess the difference in money. I asked a question online, and it was quickly answered. They requested my permission to post both my question and the answer on their blog - I agreed.

Inspired, I actually visited their local branch, spoke to a counselor, and made a few adjustments to my returns.

Do Tomatoes Really Grow Upside Down?

I kept seeing offers for upside down tomatoes in the paper catalog that was mailed to my home. It looked too hard and yes, very gimmicky, so I never really paid attention to it.

Like me, there were many who were skeptical about this new style of growing tomatoes. What the brand did next was brilliant. They stayed in touch with all who purchased the upside down plant, sought pictures, and got these consumers to engage on social media.

A year later, I got an email with the subject line, "Do tomatoes really grow upside down?" Intrigued, I clicked through to see real pictures and real commentary on this brand's social media page.

I ended up purchasing a couple of plants and will vouch for a few things - they keep ground pests away, they take less space, no weeds, and yes, they do grow upside down.

Do Birds That Eat Bees Ever Get Stung?

A friend of mine owns a backyard birding company and he was looking for ways to engage with those who purchased his product. Rather than just slip in a copy of his catalog with the merchandise being shipped, he decided to include little "quiz cards" with the following:

Do birds that eat bees ever get stung?
What weighs more, bird feathers or bird bones?
What bird does not walk?
What bird makes a figure eight while flapping its wings?
Why do cardinals kiss?

This intrigue actually draws in consumers, and my friend has experienced so many benefits first-hand. He lists all the answers on his blog where consumers can also like his brand on Facebook. His in-house experts answer questions - this keeps the site rich with dialog and pictures, real user-generated content.

The online interaction on social media also reduces the amount of phone calls his reps have to take about cleaning or installing a bird feeder, as the answers to these frequently asked questions are always a handy click away.

Brands need to leverage intrigue with little incentives (if necessary) as they try to engage with consumers. Just getting the consumer to "like" or "follow" your brand might get you a few names quickly, but it does little to sustain the momentum.

Think also about segmenting your most frequently interacting customers into a special category who you can go back to for feedback. I wrote an article on leveraging the survey with a simple tagline, "Do you know why cardinals kiss?" If you want to know, simply read the article.

Five Ideas To Create Engagement

2013-04-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

Track and adjust to perfect your engagement...

1 - Improved Segmentation – Put people into segments or categories that they have an interest in. If you have not captured their preferences, track what they are doing so you don’t have to throw everyone under the same ‘campaign bus.’

2 - Active Subject Lines – Ask people questions or lead them someplace. Use intrigue and not deception, track what they do and leverage this information back into your campaigns.

3 - Make the Personalization Real – Name calling, personalized URL’s, emails from the president might all look cool to marketers but they do very little to drive effective results. The recipient knows that these are not real and therefore not really relevant. You can use historical information or real time information across channel to achieve effective personalization. Watch what they do, and respond accordingly.

4 - Track your numbers – You need to work these effectively. If people are not paying attention to what you send them you need to stop those campaigns or even stop including all the extra information that they do not read. Your open rates tell you about interest in your campaigns, clicks tell you about further interest, and conversion tells you about ultimate interest. Un-subscribes on certain campaigns tell you how the overall campaign may have been perceived – it is not just about the individual un-subscribing.

5- Create Interactive Conversations – Learn to engage across channel. You have to join the conversation and not just force your opinion onto the customer. A dialogue is beneficial to you as it tells you what the recipient wants and allows you to make your follow up campaigns more effective.

Seven Questions and Answers on CAN-SPAM!

2013-04-22T00:00:00.000-04:00

SPAM can get really messy...

Here are seven questions and answers to CAN-SPAM requirements. I get these at conferences, phone calls and events. If you have any other specific questions, please send them over to me at sundeep.kapur@gmail.com.

1) Can you provide a high level overview of email spamming?

An unsolicited ad is defined as any material advertising the availability or quality of property, goods or services without the recipient agreeing to receive the information. The act also stipulates that fax machines are required to have the date and time of the transmission, the identity of the sender and the telephone number of the sender/ sending fax machine(s).

Unsolicited email in the B2C segment is legally considered spam. The sender is not allowed to send email unless the recipient has opted in; senders must also provide an unsubscribe link, include a physical mailing address and a clear (not deceptive) from field. Personally, I believe that unsolicited B2B email should not be allowed.

2) If a subscriber opts in to receive an eNewsletter is it safe to send them promotional offers or cross-promotions from the company?

Legally, all you are required to do is state in your privacy policy that you own multiple brands and if a person signs up for one brand, they are automatically subscribed to all the others. That being said, if someone unsubscribes from any email, you need to diligently remove them from all lists.

My suggestion is that you clearly tell people what they are signing up for, it will save you a lot of grief – your call center reps will be happier and the ISPs and your recipients might actually like you.

3) Do CAN-SPAM rules require that commercial emails to non-customers may only be sent if the recipient has opted-in?

Yes; unless the non-customer or prospect has opted into a larger append file that has been sold to you. For example, the recipient may have filled out a consumer survey to access store discounts – the privacy policy may have opted the customer into receiving offers from related parties.

As a marketer who has received access to this list, you are to remove this person from the list as part of the unsubscribe process. I would suggest that you notify the seller of the list about the unsubscribe – I would also hope that the FTC looks into the last item, to prevent the possibility of the person’s name being sold in perpetuity.

4) If someone submits a price request, or downloads a whitepaper, do they qualify to be added to our email list?Yes, but only if you expressly state that they are being added to your list. In the past it was okay to hide this information in the privacy policy (see question 2), but now it is considered deceptive if you use this strategy to send other types of messages.

5) A partner wants to run an email campaign to their clients promoting our products – can we use their name as the sender?

Yes, the partner should use their own from field and list. As the sender, the responsibility is to clearly identify yourself to the (opted-in) recipients and then honor the unsubscribes. The offer promoted within the email is of secondary importance.

To increase success of such a campaign, I would suggest including the partner offer in the subject line or in the top copy of the message.

6) Does the opt-out message itself need the address/phone, or sufficient on the website they are directed to?

Opt-out information should be included with every email sent – the unsubscribe link and a physical address (or qualified P.O. Box,) phone numbers are not required.

7) How often should you check up on your un-subscribe process?

I would recommend you routinely audit each process and consider including on applicable landing pages and incorporating a confirmation email to be sent once an unsubscribe request is received.

Three great articles on consumer engagement from ClickZ Magazine

2013-04-19T00:00:00.000-04:00

Here are three good articles from ClickZ magazine. One on consumer engagement via digital media, the second on reviving an old brand, and the third on what Google’s doing with Glass.

Drawing Consumers In With Intrigue

The Jug Life from Kool Aid

Google Glass: Want to know more?

And if you like them, do share them.

Have a great weekend!