Email Marketing Voodoo

How to NOT Survey Your Subscribers

2008-12-02T14:21:00.005-05:00

Now, I'm a big believer in leveraging email as a means to receive feedback from your customers. All companies need feedback. All companies need to listen to what their customer wants. Especially from those who care enough to opt in and have their inboxes filled with emails on a daily / weekly / monthly basis.

This core base of customers should be nurtured and NOT taken for granted. It pains me to receive surveys on a consistent basis that never offer an incentive. This incentive doesn't have to be much. A little something goes a long way.

Take this survey email below for example. It's from Condé Nast, a publishing company that prints magazines from the likes of WIRED, GQ and Vanity Fair. So since I'm a part of the "exclusive sample" of readers you'd think they'd offer me something. I mean, I'm offering them my valuable time and opinion... so what am I getting in return?

Well, it turns out, NOTHING! I actually took the time to fill out the stupid survey -- first answering some demographical questions -- then when I submitted my age, location and annual salary the following screen read "Thank you very much for your interest in our survey. Unfortunately you did not qualify for today's survey. Because our research was targeted at individuals that match a particular profile, not everyone who receives an initial e-mail will qualify to take the survey. Please be assured that information is not recorded unless a survey is successfully completed."

Wait, what? Seriously? First of all, there's no dash in "e-mail" anymore. Get with the times, grandpa. Secondly, you're not going to remember that I'm a 26 year old in Florida making less than 75k a year? Why not? So you're telling me that the next time you send out a survey, I'll click through and start filling out my demographic info only to be denied again!? I'm sorry, but that is lazy, short-sighted and for lack of a better term, bone-headed. Why aren't you capturing this information now, so you're better prepared for future surveys? This was a perfect opportunity to gain some insight into all of your "exclusive" members to send more effective messages in the future. What a waste.

So my next (and final) course of action is to opt out. They did it to themselves. Once I click and get to the unsubscribe page, it will only allow me to opt out from all WIRED-associated emails, not just Condé Nast emails. So what do I do now? I actually enjoying reading the WIRED newsletters, but I don't want any more of these annoying time-wasting surveys. Decisions, decisions.

Well, I guess that's why I have an actual subscription to the print magazine. So long, WIRED! Thank your publishing company for one less subscriber.

B2C Black Friday Email Wrap-Up

2008-12-01T11:41:00.004-05:00

Over the Thanksgiving break I was sent over 30 emails all related to Black Friday and holiday sales -- most of which were composed pretty well with a semblance of strategy and thought put behind them. Others cried out "well, since everyone else is sending out an email, I guess we will too".

NHL / NY Rangers:
Even though it's a huge sports fan faux-pas, this email's call to action is pretty compelling. It would've been an A+ if they could have incorporated my last name into the design on the jersey dynamically, but having "ANY NAME" works too. The deal for free customization and shipping was for that day only, making it even more compelling to click through.

Home Depot:
This was sent to me on Thanksgiving day, early in the morning -- serving as a means to beat the Black Friday rush, with deals and sales available starting that morning. Each item spotlighted in the email were labeled with in-store or online availability, most of which were available on that day. I don't get any of their competitors emails such as Lowe's or Ace Hardware, but I can't imagine either company were as effective with their Black Friday-related sends as HD.

Restoration Hardware:
RH has never had compelling designs. Their emails usually consist of serif text embedded in an image with their site's navigation above. Their sales emails over the weekend were no exception... still as lackluster as ever. I will give them credit for hitting me every day over the course of the sale. Only one element of the email changed between the three days. Click the preview too see what I'm talking about.

Inmagine:
The design is stark, simple and effective. But that's about all I can praise about this. It only links to the main page, with no additional info on the promotion for the reward points. One of my biggest complaints -- and it's a biggie -- is that this email is NOT CAN-SPAM compliant. Where's the opt out link? Where's the physical address? The team at Inmagine needs to brush up on their compliance rules before they get blacklisted.

Simple Shoes:
The perfect sales email. Showing the previous price against the one-day-only sales price was their best bet to increase conversions and they nailed it. The copy is outstanding -- especially this part: "they feel like marshmallows hugging your feet". I love the personality Simple brings to their emails and how they market to their audience. I didn't open this email until today, and when I clicked through, it brought me to a landing page with info on their NEXT Black Friday sale (which apparently takes place every Friday at simpleshoes.com). Too bad I missed the train on their slipper sale. I want marshmallows hugging my feet. This is by far my favorite email from the weekend.

Threadless:
Another example of a very simple and effective sales blast. Threadless slings limited-run t-shirts to hipsters and nerds alike and they know their audience extremely well. The calls to action in this email are broken up into three parts: $15 tees, $10 tees and $5 tees. Easy enough to figure out and well-executed.

---

Here's a breakdown of all of the B2C emails I received over the weekend:

Hit me once in three days:

Simple Shoes
MINI
Quiksilver
Paul Frank
Inmagine
Starbucks

Hit me twice in three days:

Levi's
adidas
Target
NHL
The Home Depot
Playstation
Threadless
New Balance

Hit me three times within three days:

Dickies
Restoration Hardware

It's Cyber Monday and My Inbox Goes to Show It

2008-12-01T11:38:00.002-05:00

Some calls to action are decent, but others seem like the standard sales offer. Oh and the ALL CAPS in the subject line, make me want to unsubscribe, when will they learn? Yes, it got through to my inbox but WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SHOUT, especially when the call to action isnt all that great?

Some retail subject lines today included:

Lands' End: WOW! FREE SHIPPING + 35% off our famous Down Vest. $19 today only!

Bath & Body Works: 25% Off Your Order - Cyber Monday Special

gap.com: TODAY ONLY: Get 15% Off Your Purchase Plus Free Shipping

BananaRepublic.com: TODAY ONLY! EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE: Get a special offer + Free Shipping!

Overstock.com: CYBER MONDAY SALE + 15% CASH BACK with PayPal

Newegg.com: Last chance for the season's biggest deals - Mega Monday Madness!

American Eagle Outfitters: Monday Only: Free Shipping!

Neiman Marcus: SO! YOU NEED A GIFT? Find it here + Free gift wrap ENDS TODAY & Free online shipping

I have to give it to Neiman Marcus for the worst/longest subject line ever and props to American Eagle Outfitters for keeping theirs short and specific. Do any of these Cyber Monday calls to action make you want to shop?

Gmail Themes Causing Rendering Issues

2008-11-25T14:06:00.003-05:00

With the release of the 30 or so Gmail themes this week, comes some predictable rendering issues. Now, with the implementation of these themes, it's even MORE important to style all of your emails using inline, longhand CSS. The most obvious issues come with the attributes of backgrounds, text and links.

According to The Retail Email Blog, "approximately 40% of all retailers have the potential to be significantly affected by this rendering problem". Click here for an example of the rendering issues that may persist.

You should have been doing it to begin with, but make sure to ALWAYS define background, text and link attributes independently -- colors and otherwise.

If you see any other issues related to the Gmail themes pop up, comment below.

Zappos Email Sign Up

2008-11-25T12:51:00.006-05:00

So there have been a few email posts about Zappos email and advertising strategies lately over at The Email Wars, The Email Experience Blog and Traffic and Conversion Blog and thought I'd chime in as well. Believe it or not, to my knowledge I have never purchased anything from Zappos before. So with all this talk about their email program and advertising, good or bad, I wanted to provide my feedback based on my experience but I cant.

Since Im not a customer, I dont get their emails and I cant find anywhere to sign up on their site. What if (in this case) I am a customer looking to buy some shoes yet have not been sold on (in this case) the service/offerings of the brand I'm buying from? How does the brand drive conversions, simply based on word of mouth and brand awareness?

If you're reading this and on Zappos email list, can someone hook me up with a forward to a friend on their newsletters please :-). Upon receiving their emails, based on the feedback Ive been reading, I have to wonder if this will turn me away or at least show me the value Zappos have to offer to its customers which from WOM, they seem to do quite well.

Show Me, Dont Tell Me

2008-11-24T09:26:00.003-05:00

Im trying to knock out my holiday shopping early this year to avoid the upcoming madness. Last year I did the majority of my shopping online however this year I have been hitting up the sales and specials in store. I bought a few things at Pier 1 Imports over the weekend and upon being asked for my email, gave it to them. I received my welcome email message the following day. Props to Pier 1 Imports for sending a welcome message, seeing how so many brands are not taking advantage of this easy touch point. However the welcome message wasn't worth my time (see screenshot below).

Thumbs Up
• Received the welcome message
• As a valued customer, I will be included on sneak peeks and special offers, etc.

Thumbs Down
• Email doesnt show me how Im a valued customer (no discount, no incentive). If Im a valued customer, shouldn't I be presented with something that shows that?

Maybe Im being too harsh because I didnt get anything in return from Pier 1 after my weekend purchase and providing them with my personal contact info. I guess I should just be glad that they are at least sending welcome messages and perhaps with a little patience will start to see some return from Pier 1 for being a the valued customer they say I am.

Gmail Unveils New Design Themes

2008-11-19T17:39:00.002-05:00

It looks like GMAIL is breaking the mold again; this time with allowing their users to add themes to their interfaces. The "themes" tab still hasn't been added to my account, but I'm sure it'll only be a few days until I see it pop up. Some of the themes are obviously tacky and for the youngin's, but most are designed quite nicely.

The tab will be under the settings section when available which, again, will be within a few days. I can't wait to see when they roll out the "upload your own theme" function.

Check out some screenshots below:

Thanks to albert via lifehacker via the official gmail blog for pointing this out.

Restaurant Brands Have it Made When it Comes to Email

2008-11-19T14:43:00.004-05:00

I can't say Ive met anyone that doesnt enjoy food or love it for that matter. With that, why arent more restaurant brand leveraging email to its full potential? Why don't more fast food or in and out restaurants send emails prior to the lunch hour to help persuade individuals or groups where to go for lunch? We all know how difficult it can be to make a decision on where to go for lunch where the restaurants options seem endless, so why shouldn't restaurant brands persuade us with their savory images of menu items. Inbox overload? - yes, but how some imagery can really start a craving.

Maybe Im in need of an afternoon snack or maybe food is to me what Apple is to Mac fans. Regardless I still think restaurant brands have a step up in the email world if they use their assets to their advantage. Now who can tell me where cookware company, William Sonama gets their dessert imagery from, that's what I want!

Shop.org Provides Insight into Retailers Holiday Marketing Plans

2008-11-19T14:17:00.004-05:00

From our previous post we were looking for insight into this years marketing trends as it relates to the holiday season and what marketers were doing to get consumers to spend with them. Low and behold just a day later MediaPost's Research Brief released information from a eHoliday study Shop.org did. I've provided the findings below for easy reference.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Retailers Make Online Shopping More Attractive For Christmas

According to results of the 2008 eHoliday Study from Shop.org, 56.1% of online retailers expect their holiday sales to increase at least fifteen percent over last year, compared to 77.5% of retailers surveyed last year who expected their sales to grow more than 15 percent.
Scott Silverman, Executive Director of Shop.org, says "...Retailers will be heavily promotional to attract shoppers on a budget, but have also invested in new site features to improve the online buying experience."

Despite an increase in transportation costs, retailers do not plan to cut back on popular free shipping promotions. This year:

• 78% of retailers plan to offer free shipping with conditions
• 40.4% of retailers are compensating for increased shipping costs by renegotiating terms with shipping providers
• 33.3% are closely managing company headcount
• 15.8% are reducing other promotions
• 21.3% of retailers say they will require a higher purchase amount for customers to be eligible for free shipping
• 10.6% will cut back on usage of free shipping with no conditions

In addition to free shipping promotions, many retailers have rolled out new website features to improve the customer experience.

• 42.9% of retailers added or improved site search to help customers navigate sites more easily
• 42.6% added product video
32.7% offered customer reviews
... to give shoppers more information to make buying decisions.

For price-focused shoppers:

• 27.1% of retailers have added and enhanced clearance sale pages
• 31.3% added featured sale pages
• 25.0% of online retailers added a Facebook page this year
• 58% of consumers acknowledge that 24-hour shopping convenience is one of the main reasons why they choose to buy online. Additionally, shoppers' other top reasons for buying online instead of in stores include:

• Not wanting to fight crowds (41.1%)
• Easy price comparisons (36.4%)
• Free shipping (33.3%) Also, nearly one in four shoppers says they are
• Online spending due to high gas prices (23.1%)

Helen Malani, Shopzilla's Online Shopping Expert, concludes "... budget-focused consumers... are starting on the web to look for gift ideas... whether they make those holiday purchases online or in stores, the Internet will have a tremendous influence... this year."

For more information about the study, please visit Shop.org here.

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2008-11-17T16:45:00.003-05:00

Its not even Thanksgiving and I've already got the winter holidays top of mind. Perhaps its the cold front that has moved through Florida giving me hope that Im not going to have to use my A/C for a couple months, the fact that all the retail stores Ive been in have their holiday decorations up or the fact that my inbox is being filled with all sorts of deals enticing me to shop.

What I am interested in seeing based on state of our current economy and trends of consumers spending less, will the retailers do more this year in regards to sales and specials or will they just get smarter? I stumbled into a retail store yesterday to pick up a few purchases and along with my purchase I was given a giftcard that is worth $10, $50, $100 or $500. The catch? I have to go back to the store between December 1-24th to discover the value of the giftcard, meaning I have to purchase something to see what its worth. I have to admit, they've totally got me sold. Even though the likelihood that the gift card will be the lowest value of $10, Im still hopeful that maybe Ill be one of the lucky ones. If Im not, I still have a strategy of my own in place, we cant just let these marketers outsmart us ;-). My plan is to purchase something small and if they happen to reveal to me that its worth $500 then of course Ill gladly find a way to spend it so we are both winners unless of course they hide all the $10 valued items that day.

Is this strategy one to encourage consumers to spend more in a down economy or have I just blocked these strategies out in the past? Stayed tuned for more holiday email marketing favorites.

Email Design Showcase

2008-11-14T13:39:00.007-05:00

I thought I would take this post to present a few emails that I've been impressed with recently. The emails below have landed in my inbox within the past month and all have exceptional designs for their own unique reasons.

eROI: Sales / Marketing Blast

I love everything about this email, from the subject line, the content blocks & calls to action... Especially the overall design with the cutting board & bread. They really seem to nail the tone with this blast -- beckoning to join their team if you're currently unhappy with your online marketing efforts and general presence on the web. I'd really like to know the stats for this email, what the terms of success were and how many conversions they scored.

Jupiter Images: Special Deal / Promotion

I can honestly say that I've never seen an email designed this way. Although, it lacks any HTML supporting text (it's basically just 3 images in their own table row), the idea behind the design is a winner. The angles drew me in... I scanned the entire email and spent a lot of time below the fold once I got there, inspecting the smaller images carefully. Points off for not hot-linking the "EMAIL US AT" call to action to the email addresses, but all and all great job.

Blue Sky Factory: Sales / Marketing Blast

I can't remember ever receiving an email with a newspaper / traditional newsletter design. And for that reason, this email really made an impression on me. It may also be due to it's simplistic nature, the small call to action on the bottom right hand corner, its good balance of imagery and text, or how it makes the case that email marketing still works and still consistently provides the highest ROI out of any other form of marketing. Either way, it put a smile on my face.

If you have received any exceptionally designed emails recently, post them below!

Major SPAM Distributor Taken Down by Feds

2008-11-13T14:48:00.003-05:00

Have you noticed a drop in the amount spam being delivered to you recently? If so, this may be due to the fact that one of the largest SPAM firms was taken offline. McColo Corp, based out of San Jose, California was hosting servers by a relatively small firm that served (no pun intended) as a means to deliver a significant amount of the world's SPAM. McColo's client list doesn't hold up as far as integrity goes. Their 'clients' include companies that sell knock off pharmaceuticals & handbags as well as child porn -- all via email.

As soon as their site and servers were pulled, spam volumes dropped worldwide -- as much as 66 percent in some cases. Spamcop, the absolute authority on SPAM, saw 40 spam emails per second drop down to 10 per second. The graph can be found below:

McColo's fate is not ultimately sealed, but it seems as though they're S.O.L. Mark Rasch, a former cyber-crime prosecutor for the Justice Department claims that "It's a little bit like a landlord who owns a building and sees people coming in and out of the apartment complex constantly at all hours and not suspecting their may be drug activity going on." Sure, they can play dumb all they want, but they more than likely knew of the fishy behavior occurring through their servers.

This is a major score for all of us legit email senders as well as anyone who is inundated with irrelevant, spammy email.

You can read the entire story at msnbc.com. It's worth the read. Thanks to Greg Cangialosi for pointing this out.

Retail Friends and Family Programs

2008-11-12T20:29:00.007-05:00

I've seen more and more retail brands make great use out of their Friends and Family programs. Gap is running a promotion over the next 4 days for members of their Friends and Family to "Give & Get".

Friends and Family of the Gap are given the option to shop at the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic or all three stores, saving 30% off their purchases and in return, Gap is giving 5% of what they spend to the non profit of their choosing from the list provided. Even better, if Gap's preferred customers pass the message along to their friends and family, they will receive the same discount and 5% of their purchase(s) will go to their choice of non profit. Non profits include: WWF, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, care, The Global Fund, Dress for Success and the GAP Foundation.

Gap is trying to raise $3 million for the non profits during this particular Give & Get event. During their August Give & Get event, Gap was able to donate $1.3 million dollars to the non profits. If you're interested in giving back, leave a comment and we'll the pass the message along to you.

What perfect timing to knock off some of that holiday shopping and why wouldn't you want to shop for a great cause?!

From Junk Folder to Inbox

2008-11-11T16:38:00.004-05:00

I was doing my random scanning of my inbox that I use for collecting emails that I dont read on a regular basis but like to see what marketers are up to and noticed well established brand's messages were landing in my spam/junk folder. One in particular stuck out to me, being 1-800-Flowers. Although its not Valentines day where I imagine it's 1-800-Flowers busiest time of year, with the holidays approaching where flowers, table settings or gifts may be purchased I wanted to provide some tips to help ensure not only 1-800-Flowers message lands in the inbox but other email marketers messages do as well.

From an initial overview of 1-800-Flowers emails, I noticed a few things instantly that could relate to the messages being sent to the junk folder. With that, to avoid your message from going unnoticed prior to sending out your message:

• Avoid the use of spammy keywords
• Avoid use of all CAPS in the subject line
• Avoid punctuation in the subject line such as exclamation points, question marks, etc.

• Test your subject lines and HTML against spam scoring tools, so if you want to use the word, 'free' for instance, you'll have a better idea of whether the email will be flagged or not
• Avoid sending to recipients who are not opening your messages
• Do not fill my inbox with your messages, especially if I'm not opening them
• Avoid using 1-800, 1-888 numbers in the body of the email

Things to avoid in an email all depend on how you use them of course and in reading, have come across a tip on avoiding the use of 1-800 or 1-888 numbers within the email content. Since 1-800 plays a large part in regards to 1-800-Flowers brand I wanted to determine if this was its route cause for its messages being delivered to my spam/junk folder. I ran the email through a spam rating tool and the email was in fact dinged for spam but it was noted under the reply to address as being spammy. Something interesting to test further would be to determine if it was marked as spam due to the reply to address including 1-800 or the fact that the email itself was marked as spam for over messaging to its audience since it shares the address with the 'From' address. I did not compare the spam score against another spam scoring tool so it would be interesting to see how it matches up.

Fortunately 1-800-Flowers has a well established brand name so people know where to go when they need flowers however subscribers may be missing out on the great deals and offers 1-800 Flowers has to offer. With that, to reinstate the main message of this post, testing is critical. Depending on the detail of your QA department or what spam scoring tools provide you, it never hurts to send a live message to yourself and multiple email clients especially when dealing with the BtoC audience to see where your message ends up (spam folder or inbox) and if its worthy of being read once found. Lastly upon your message being delivered, find out where it ends up and if it is in fact the junk folder, take the corrective measures to ensure it doesn't happen the next time round.

Obama & Email

2008-11-06T10:36:00.002-05:00

The dust from the fiery presidential election has settled. Obama will be our next commander-in-chief. Its no doubt that he ran a remarkable online campaign, embracing all social networks and communities. But most importantly, he utilized email and proved that it was one of the most powerful and significant facets of his campaign -- driving it ultimately to success.

Since August of this year, I was sent 110 emails. They came in at nearly a daily basis, holding my attention throughout the life-cycle of the campaign. He even announced Biden as his running mate with an email! But now that the campaign is over, what will be done with all of the email addresses collected? In the last message delivered, he stated "I'll be in touch soon about what comes next." Will Obama keep his momentum going and maintain the direct line of communication to his supporters? I sure hope so.

It would be such a shame if he only communicated to the American people via mass media outlets from here on out. I would love to continue to get updates and information directly from my president through twitter, myspace and especially email. I think he should continue to embrace the technologies he used to win the presidency.

What do you think? Comment below.

Thanks to Kirk Bentley's thread at the EMC for some insight on this.

Using Current Events as Part of Email Strategy

2008-11-04T16:11:00.003-05:00

Election day is here and marketers are taking advantage which started with offering free coffee or doughnuts to those that voted, which was short lived due to legal ramifications to email marketers tweaking their email messages to include election related key words such as the word "Vote" in subject lines to capture readers attention.

A few that made it to my inbox that included the keyword "vote" in the subject line were from:

From: Zazzle.com
Subject Line: Vote! Plus $3 off shirts at Zazzle - Ends today
(Just as the polls will close today, so does your chance at getting $3 off)

From: Ann Taylor LOFT
Subject Line: Vote for Great Style: 25% OFF Dresses, Skirts & Work Essentials - Online Only
(Targeting online shoppers, opposed to creating an sense of urgency as Zazzle is doing)

From: SportsAuthority.com
Subject Line: Sports Authority Election Sale The Winner Is You Tonight Only
(Emphasizing online shopping only, a discount and the time (9pm election night - tomorrow at 8am EST) so while we are all waiting for the polls to close and hear who our next President will be, why not kill some time by shopping online)

From: Lands' End
Subject Line: Free Shipping gets our vote - no minimum order
(Highlighting free shipping, election day only)

From: dELiA*s
Subject Line: You Voted! Shop Our Best Sellers + Free Shipping
(Not sure how they know I voted but since I did, they are giving me easy access to view their best selling items and take advantage of free shipping on orders over $25)

All of the above retail email campaigns leveraged something slightly different in their marketing messages yet all focused on the keyword "vote" in the subject line. If you had to vote for which campaign would perform the best in regards to sales conversions (assuming that is the overall goal for each message, which would you give your vote to?

Why Bigger Is Not Always Better

2008-10-30T14:25:00.004-04:00

It's been proven time and time again that smaller, segmented sends are not only ultimately more relevant to your subscribers, but always perform better. The knee-jerk reaction that I've faced in the past is to send every email to ALL of your subscribers... to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.

Segmenting is all based on collected information and user activity. Don't have a lot of information on your customers? Well then, this is the one and only case where I think it's OK to send them ALL the same email. It's always helps to check in with your subscribers to make sure you have current and relevant information. It's also an opportunity to see how active your users are. If they don't click through and give you additional info, then cut your losses... or at least throw them in a segment for inactivity that they can call their own. Your database of subscribers is only as strong as its weakest link. And if you collect anything at all, make sure it's their first and last name (aside from their email address, obviously).

Another way to optimize your subscriber base is to send an email to users that haven't opened an email in the last 12 months (like the inactivity group I mentioned above). Ask them to display images via ALT tags (how opens are tracked) or to click through to a landing page. Keep those who obey, and omit the rest. They're worthless and you're ultimately doing yourself a disservice by constantly sending to them.

Set aside a good chunk of time every six months to auditing your subscribers. Cut the fat and embrace the active users.

But if there's any one thing I want people to take away from this post is that it all starts from day one. Once a user signs up, set their expectations. Encourage them to give you as much information about themselves as possible. When they do opt in, send them a welcome message! All ESPs have this feature at their disposal... you might as well use it! Also, make sure there are options available for users to update their preferences in every email you send them.

Whats Wrong With This Picture?

2008-10-30T12:30:00.004-04:00

Like most others, you would have most likely dropped off the sign up process at some point whether it be at the first long page full of form fields, the amount of pages it took you through or the lack of information upfront. I could see from the initial email, something critical was missing so I went through the process up till the last page to see if I could find what I was looking for. No such luck. Can you tell me whats missing from this communication?

Email

Sign Up Form

More Sign Up Info

Pricing Options

Payment Information

So with five pages of information, you think they'd be able to tell you where the event is located/hosted right?

Credit is Owed to Industry Thought Leaders

2008-10-28T17:25:00.008-04:00

I just got back into the office today after visiting clients and had to face the overwhelming response of emails waiting for me in my inbox, which was a just two days worth in this case. So as many do I first scanned to check for any client emails that needed direct attention, followed by internal communications. To get through the rest, its mostly hitting the delete button because I know Im not going to go back and read through them all as there's just not enough time in the day. However in filtering through the journals and thought leaders blog posts which I have feed into my inbox, Im taking the time to read the blog posts yet hardly skimming the news journals article titles. My attention to these reiterated the importance of good content and what respected contributors in this space provide for free. Considering their busy schedules and how they still make time to post valuable information that's read worthy, email marketers should strive do the same in publishing consistent and relevant content. With that marketers can only expect to see their customers spending more time in their inboxes or better yet, clicking through.

Let's Go Rangers!

2008-09-23T11:24:00.005-04:00

Geotargeting is an excellent way to provide your subscribers with timely and relevant content. Its easy to implement by collecting either the users' zip code or state.

My favorite hockey team has always been the New York Rangers. My folks grew up in NY/NJ. My dad always watched their games. I was born into it. Recently I signed up for their mailing list and my first email by them was a doozy.

This is an extremely well-executed example of geotargeting-based messaging done right. They know I live near Tampa, so they sent me an email to buy to tickets to a Rangers /Lightning game on two separate occasions. All it entails is to segment your database by state or zip code. Elementary stuff, really.

If anyone reading this will be in Tampa on Wednesday, November 26th, come by the St Pete Times Forum... Say hello. I'll be in section 203, row K. Let's Go Rangers!

Style.com "Gets" Promotional Emails

2008-09-17T13:40:00.007-04:00

Take a look at this email:

I'll put it bluntly... Style Magazine pulled off an awesome promotional email. The iPod alone is a very strong call to action and I clicked immediately. Win an iPod touch? I'm there. Strong, straight-to-the-point subject line: "Win an iPod Touch from Style.com". My only criticism is that I would have liked to see the text to the left be embedded in the HTML rather than the image.

As a result of getting this email, I just may purchase a subscription for some friends near Christmas time. And if I win the iPod? Oh, you can guarantee my business.

I would love to know the click-through rate for this email. I imagine that it would be above 75%.

At any rate... job well done, Style.

Birthday Email Communications

2008-09-09T17:40:00.003-04:00

Considering all the spam that arrives in our inboxes today, birthday emails are almost as good as getting an unexpected letter in the mail from a friend or family member. Although most birthday emails I have seen are tied to some sort of sales offer, they act as a great added touch point between the brand and the customer outside of their regular communications. Additionally birthday email messages:

Become anticipated once you see one brand's birthday message land in your inbox
Can be used as a marketing/sales tool - $10 off product/service, just for you on your birthday....
Leverage personalization at its best
Show a good likelihood that they are going to get opened especially if the subject line contains "Happy Birthday"
Allows brands to measure a subscriber's response in regards to relevant and personalized messages vs mass communication
Allows brands to show their customers that they care, one of the reasons they ask for your birthday upon sign up or on your preferences page

My two favorite birthday emails based on my preferences and the brands I subscribe to are Cold Stone Creamery and Origins. Cold Stone Creamery gives their customers a free "Love It Creation" aka medium sized cup - come on now, who doesn't love ice cream while Origins is giving me $10 off my next purchase. As a repeat customer, I'll be sure to use it.

Don't you just want to sign up for your favorite brands email communications now to see what they send you on your birthday?!

Quiksilver: 3 Welcome Messages In A Row

2008-09-09T09:14:00.003-04:00

After reading this post at Email Wars, I was inclined to sign up for some Quiksilver emails. I always wore this brand as a kid... Whether it was some baggy boardshorts, stained t-shirts or a ripped pair of jeans; I sported Quiksilver quite often in my "quiet little beach community."

Now I'm older and I've ditched most -- if not all -- of my surf-wear. But that doesn't mean I'm not curious to see what one of my most cherished brands as a kid is up to nowadays... Especially in the email realm.

So I signed up, and after going through a pretty standard process (name, email, birthday, zip) I was looking forward to see how they would go about engaging me.

But instead of positive engagement, I was inundated with the same welcome message for three days in a row. The same message... Over and over and over. I was annoyed, sure, but after the third email, I was strangely compelled to click through and see what the preferences page looked like. As you can see below, it's not daunting at all. One thing I would have liked to see is my email and zip (already on file, mind you) auto-filled.

Another thing worth noting is that each welcome message was received between 8:02am and 8:04am. Auto generated? Me thinks so.

Quiksilver needs to understand that this is NOT the smartest way to initially engage a new subscriber. I'm sure if I wasn't in the email marketing industry, I would've unsubscribed after the second email. I hope they make up for this with relevant offers and announcements. You know, now that they have my preferences and all.

Snapfish: A/B Testing Fail

2008-09-02T10:40:00.009-04:00

I've been a subscriber of Snapfish's emails for a good year and a half now. Overall, I've been content with their emails (although they do have a tendency to over-send sometimes). And lately, it seems as though their content has become less and less relevant to me.

Smart email marketers always conduct some sort of A/B testing to determine how their subscriber base reacts to certain aspects of email. Whether it's a varying subject line or call to action; knowing what your customers like and how they react is crucial to a successful campaign.

But what happens when you send both the "A" test AND the "B" test to the same subscriber? Well, they tend to opt out or report you as SPAM... Which is what I had to do last Friday.

I first received an email at 9:47am with the subject line "Start school with 20% off a photo calendar" with a CTA that read "new school year, new calendar!". Not really interested or relevant since I'm not in school. I also need to mention that I had received this same exact email 5 days prior. Frustration was starting to set in.
Then 4 hours later I received yet another email which looked very similar. The subject line this time around read "Just 3 days left - 20% off photo calendars" and the call to action was "Get 20% off on Calendars". This email is more my speed, but by this time I had overlooked the offer since I was so annoyed.
This is sloppy email marketing, plain and simple. Always make sure you split your database down the middle and exclude any subscribers from the previously sent list. This prevents any duplicates and overlap in your subscriber base.

And I'm sorry to say that Snapfish has lost this subscriber. And if this issue was across the board, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who hovered over and clicked the "unsubscribe" link.

VSL Gets A Redesign

2008-08-21T13:47:00.008-04:00

My favorite daily editorial email, VERY SHORT LIST, has a new layout and design. It's more intelligently laid out, now with a pre-header and with more predominant calls to action, especially with the forward to a friend button. They're also incorporating social networking tools such as Digg and Facebook to spread the word about VSL.

Everything about this email is consistent, to-the-point and also encourages user sign up and database growth. There are 3 opportunities for a new user to sign up and 5 opportunities to forward the email or invite friends to sign up. Also with the new design, there's a call to action for the web-version of VSL, which has separate content independent of the email.

Kudos to the creators and editors of VSL. Excellent job on all fronts.