No man is an iland

April 28, 2006

Travel is a great teacher, and here are five things I brought back with me from this week's email marketing conference.

1. The power of words.

One of the Swedish presentations used the bullet point "rensa, rensa, rensa." The words just jumped off the screen at me. They have a lovely resonance. Rensa, rensa, rensa.

Words have a power independent of just their meaning. How resonant are your messages and headlines?

(Rensa means clean up, as in keep your email list clean.)

2. The power of the unexpected.

We're so conditioned to expect certain experiences and voices that the unexpected has a huge impact. And a memorable one.

Ever listen to those bland "welcome to city X" announcements you get on planes and trains when they arrive at their final destination? Nope, me neither.

The Airport Express train from Arlanda airport to Stockholm has a welcome message, too. But their's sounds...well...sensual.

Really.

A sensual train announcement.

It was...memorable. Maybe try the unexpected in your emails now and then?

3. Good and bad advertising

Airports are a gallery of ads. One I liked: a mirror with the words, "Why not buy some new eye shadow to go with that top" written on it.

One I disliked: an ad by Finnair for their "lie-flat" seat. The picture showed a seat that, well, wasn't flat. I thought flat was flat. Or maybe that's the "lie" bit. (I've since noticed that other airlines also advertise flat seats that aren't flat.)

4. The jump from knowing you should do something to actually doing it is a big one

I gave a lot of advice in my presentation. How much do I apply to my own emails?

Not enough.

The biggest ROI boost would probably come from bridging that gap between knowledge and action.

5. Travel is good for keeping complacency in check

I thought I was pretty good speaking two languages. Everyone (everyone) in Sweden spoke fluent English (and Swedish, obviously), and often another one or two languages on top of that. There's no room for complacency in life and marketing.

Thanks to David (DF Kompetens), Mattias and Outi (L-Soft) and their colleagues for their kindness and wonderful hospitality.

April 25, 2006

Analysing the results of a send out is one thing, but Jeanne Jennings makes the case for projecting results in advance, too.

She outlines various excuses people use to avoid doing such projections and then gives arguments in favor of doing so.

She also has some tips on where to get the numbers to build the estimates in the first place.

Neil Anuskiewicz introduces the idea of segmentation and targeting in the context of permission-based email marketing.

He highlights the importance of segmentation, and has some suggestions on building up your data, using your data, and how offer codes can help you track the results of the subsequent targeting efforts.

Looks like database skills are becoming even more essential to successful email marketing. Though many (most) of the services and tools around make basic segmentation relatively easy, even for database duffers like moi.

Anne Holland gives her take on the Email marketing Summit 2006 she just finished hosting, beginning with an overall view of the health and dynamism of the industry as a whole. She's pretty pumped.

Then she picks out highlights from the various presentations, including tips and tweaks on such subjects as building your list, design, copywriting, localization and battling with your IT department.

April 24, 2006

Now here's reason number 87 for using email marketing...

We all know we're supposed to test, right? And email is a pretty good test environment. Because you get nice results back quickly. And because email is a relatively standalone thing (so you can easily attribute differences in results to different changes you made).

Roshen Mathew covers these points and then explains why it makes supreme sense to use email as a test bed for campaign elements you can transfer to other marketing channels.

This time from vendor Bronto via an article by Karen Gedney in ClickZ.

The collection of quick tips covers such aspects as coding, design technologies and testing.

It's nice to see issues like design and copywriting start to get more attention. We do tend to get bogged down in deliverability issues.

But it's probably easier to double your response through better copy and design than through improved deliverability. And the two are related anyway: there are design and copy elements that help trigger anti-spam filters.

April 21, 2006

Derek Harding continues his series on dynamic email campaigns, i.e. ones that customize each outgoing email based on an understanding of various characteristics of the recipient or recipient group.

In this article, he covers the different attributes you might use to profile your segments or recipients. Then he suggests different ways you might set about gathering the required data to fill in the gaps in your database.

Targeting and relevancy: it's the new black.

Authentication is like the extra couple of pounds we're carrying around our waists. We know it's there. We know we should do something about it. But maybe...erm...tomorrow.

Time to get active, folks.

Email authentication has serious implications for your email marketing success. I admit to being pretty ignorant of the details, so I took some time to put together this article outlining what it's all about, why it's important for marketers, and what you need to do about it.

There are relevant links in there, too, for those who need to know the real nitty gritty.

April 19, 2006

The best thing about benchmark statistics is you can usually find some that show you are above average.

Of course, those that demonstrate the opposite can be discarded as not relevant to your situation. (Cough, cough.)

Anyway, whether you trust or distrust stats and their interpretation, data is data and always worth a look.

In this new Sherpa guide, the data in question relates to the practices and performances of retailer websites and those that shop them.

In among the hundreds of charts and tables is a whole section or three devoted to email marketing, covering such joys as email registration and communication practices, and email marketing efforts per se.

You'll find the table of contents at the above link, and the report itself costs $297 at the time of writing.

Sherpa is an excellent publisher (disclaimer: I used to write for them extensively), so the material they put out is normally top quality.

April 18, 2006

MailChimp did an interesting exercise. They went through millions of emails delivered on behalf of clients and compared the subject lines with the open rates to see if there were any trends.

You have to be careful with interpreting such surveys, of course, because open rates are driven by other factors as well. You don't know if a high open rate is because of -- or despite -- the subject line.

So it's not as simple as copying the "best" ones and avoiding the "worst." Indeed, as the MailChimp folk point out, the results reveal that it's a question of the right tone of subject line for the right list.

In other words, what works for one kind of email doesn't necessarily apply to another kind of email. That's why testing is critical. They also note that an important issue is matching the subject line with the expectations of the audience.

Interesting stuff.

One of the eternal debates in traditional copywriting circles is the long versus short sales letter.

That debate isn't strictly transferable to email, which is a special reading environment. But email has its own equivalent: should your promotional emails be long or short?

In this article, G. Simms Jenkins argues for the latter approach.

He does so by citing tests conducted on a client's email efforts and interpreting the results in detail.

He also lists a number of best practices when it comes to improving response through calls to action and appropriate email design and layout.

There's a lot of talk about various formal processes for authenticating emails and the role they should play in deciding whether an email gets delivered to the end user.

Those looking for some insight into the current situation might read Kevin Newcomb's recent overview.

He discusses the "state of email authentication," including:

• how the different authentication approaches stand in relation to each other


• the scale of adoption by commercial senders of email


• the role authentication plays in delivery


• the future (where reputation scores might also play a big role)

Useful background for those following industry developments.

Melinda Krueger analyses a "special offers" type email list and identifies problems with the way they present the offer and gather sign-ups.

Melinda's points reflect the need to manage expectations and reduce uncertainty at sign-up, based on an awareness of your audience. So that you don't frighten people off needlessly.

And she has some insights into how changing hardware devices (more mobile email) impact on your email strategy.

April 17, 2006

And now for something completely different.

According to this celebrity gossip site, the star of Mission: Impossible is not a big fan of email.

(Rumor has it Mission: Impossible 4 will charge the star with getting a B2B marketing email to display as intended in Lotus Notes.)

Anyway, apart from giving me an excuse to inject a bit of Hollywood glamor into proceedings here, I thought his alleged quote was worth reading.

It's a reminder why you have to stand out through quality and innovation if you want to get a response to your email marketing endeavors. A lot of people probably share Mr. Cruise's opinion (at least about email).

David Baker explains the concept of triggered emails and how they are a much underused email marketing opportunity.

He also suggests a practical process you might undertake to assess the potential in your organisation for such an approach.

April 14, 2006

Stephanie Miller uses this company blog post to cite a few stats and sources showing how integrating email with other channels lifts overall campaign response rates.

She also offers up three examples of how you might combine different channels to better reach particular goals and target audiences.

Like a lot of best practices, multichannel approaches to marketing and advertising demand more effort and coordination. But the rewards are bigger, too.

Karen J. Bannan picks the brains of word-of-mouth expert Pete Blackshaw to come up with some quick tips on how to encourage people to spread your message (by email).

It's Friday and tax week so pardon me for pessimism. But people can only read so many emails, watch so many TV channels, hear so many podcasts, visit so many websites and forward so many viral messages.

Summary: overlying every kind of route you take to get your message across is ultimately, inevitably and (for many) unfortunately a need to stand out positively from the average. Only then do you get the attention you want.

Think of email marketing success like living on an island as the oceans rise. Dry land today may be underwater tomorrow. You have to keep striving to gain the higher ground, otherwise you drown in the flood of content.

Morgan Stewart offers some basic advice on how to view email marketing success (hint: it's not just about campaign metrics).

On a practical level, he also has a selection of ideas for approaching segmentation and overall mailing strategy, both for "broadcast" emails and single emails triggered by an action (a sign-up, purchase, whatever).

April 13, 2006

EmailLabs just released detailed results from a survey of marketers' attitudes, actions and opinions with regard to various deliverability issues. You can read the results here.

Ignoring arguments about how various responses can be interpreted, there does seem to be a general need for more education on the elements that drive deliverability.

Part of the problem could well be that this aspect of email marketing has got increasingly technical with the advent of authentication, certification, filters and similar. Which is not an area of business that marketers (or myself) perhaps feel very comfortable with.

So the email marketing skill base needs to expand or people need to find the cash to hire experts and their systems. Neither of which is necessarily easy to do.

April 12, 2006

Mike Adams talks extensively with the VP Marketing of EmailLabs. Although McDonald talks quite a bit about the company and its services, it's all mixed in with insight into numerous key topics.

These include the true concept of permission, spam, deliverability issues and the associated technologies and services, email address providers and their impacts, and more.

McDonald has a history of providing intelligent advice and commentary, so it's worth listening when he speaks.

Damien Buckley has some suggestions on how to ensure Hotmail addresses see your email as intended if you're relying on CSS to drive your email design.

Amusingly, the organizers of the MediaPost Insider Summit for email marketers below messed up the email invitation. I got one offering to pay my flights, hotel and registration as a VIP, later followed by an apology telling me effectively that, erm, I was not actually a VIP and would have to pay my own way.

You have to laugh I guess. These things happen to the best of us.

Double amusing: one of the latest email marketing articles from that publisher is about email marketing mistakes and what to do about them.

Life can get pretty embarrassing sometimes.

Unfortunately for MediaPost, the error is getting coverage around various marketing blogs and has generated a smidgen of ill feeling. I suspect because people don't like getting their expectations raised and then shattered.

Nor do people appreciate a reminder that they are not VIPs, even when they know it to be true. A lesson for us all there.

I might add the apology had a relatively cold corporate tone to it: another missed opportunity. They should read their own (usually excellent) articles on email marketing more closely.

April 10, 2006

In my ongoing attempt to put more spring into your email marketing step, I give you David Baker's Best of the Worst article.

He presents some lovely screwed up email campaigns (typos, double sends etc.) for you to laugh or cry at, as you prefer.

More importantly, David also has some pertinent advice on how to react when these kinds of errors occur (as they inevitably do), and even turn disaster into a customer relationship plus.

Gail Goodman takes a look at the concept of relevancy and outlines the basic principles your email communications need to follow to engage the interest of the reader.

Relevancy is the new black in email marketing. But for those who might scoff at the somewhat "obvious" concept of needing to send relevant email, I say this...

Look at your inbox.

How many of the commercial emails you receive feature relevant, useful, engaging content that you look forward to getting?

How many hit the spot every issue or every send?

Not many. Not because we're all bad email marketers, but because relevancy is easy at one level, but pretty hard to get right time after time for each and every email subscriber.

Adrian Mullan explores select benefits of email marketing, describing the impacts on conversions, repeat sales, upsells/cross-sells, market research and offline sales.

It's a good sell of the basic premise of email, and one which might convince a few newcomers to give it a try.

April 07, 2006

Duane Crandall makes the case for using a combination of email and search marketing as part of your lead development regime.

On the email side, he explores the idea of automated sequential emails to nurture fresh leads. And he highlights the value to the sales rep of receiving typical search and email marketing metrics data.

April 06, 2006

MarketingSherpa just announced their Viral Marketing Hall of Fame 2006. It features details of 12 campaigns that stood out from the rest and caught the approving eye of the judges.

Undoubtedly some ideas in there for you to borrow, plus examples of how to integrate email into such campaigns.

At the end of the day, it's all about having a buzz worthy "thing" though. All the clever technology and copy doesn't amount to much if your viral bait is lame.

Increasingly, outstanding success online depends on going beyond getting the basics right. You really need to apply a winning touch of innovation and inventiveness.

Karen Gedney comes up with a potpourri of tips and anecdotes from her work writing emails for clients.

The article has the kind of little copywriting tips and tricks that are never worthy of a whole article in their own right, but make you go, "Ah! Good idea!"

Especially worth reading if you're involved in B2B marketing.

Nice article from George Bilbrey, outlining various steps you can take to ensure a clean reputation as a sender of email, thus avoiding the delivery penalties applied to those with mud sticking to their email marketing efforts.

His advice covers preventing spam complaints, analysis of those complaints you do get, bounce prevention, authentication, blacklists and spam traps, and testing your emails before you send them out.

April 05, 2006

Bill McCloskey is an unashamed RSS skeptic. In this article he offers a more critical look at the true value of RSS, particularly as a marketing vehicle or alternative to email.

Being a noted fence-sitter, my view is that RSS isn't as good as its hype, but better than its critics claim. Like most things in life, actually.

Nancy Cohen reviews the current position of email marketing, with a double focus...

First, she examines how cross-industry collaboration is getting spam under control with less collateral damage to legitimate marketing messages.

Second, she looks at the future of email marketing in the light of more advanced targeting techniques.

All of which is interspersed with commentary from various analysts and industry insiders.

Ken Magill has the latest on various attempts to pass state laws ostensibly aimed at preventing children from getting inappropriate emails.

Just about everyone with an understanding of the issues agrees they likely do more harm than good, so the promising news is that most of these attempts just aren't making it onto the statute books.

April 04, 2006

Jeanniey Mullen argues that building awareness (in various senses) is at the core of a successful email programme.

She goes on to identify various aspects of a campaign that you can improve if you take another look at them within this context.

There's a wider lesson here, which is that you need to set clear goals for your emails and then critically evaluate every element of the strategy, tactics, design etc. that goes into your email marketing to ensure they're contributing in some way to those goals.

The folks over at MailChimp have a nice article explaining the perils of spam complaints and how to avoid them.

After clarifying why even the "cleanest" senders can get complaints, the authors offer up some reasons why many complaints are actually entirely justified, even if your intentions are purely honourable.

They then outline various practices to implement (or avoid) to keep those complaints to a minimum and stay away from the dark side of email marketing.

ReturnPath just released some figures on deliverability rates at different ISPs and corporate filter services (in the second half of 2005).

Overall, the percentage of email either landing in spam folders or not arriving at all is trending down, which is good. But this does mask a huge variation depending on which ISP you look at.

The non-delivery rate at Gmail, for example, was over twice as high as the average. At Earthlink, this rate was less than half the average.

And, pleasingly, it seems more consumers than you might think take active steps to add corporate domains to their personal address book, thus ensuring delivery of commercial email from those domains.

April 03, 2006

Tricia Robinson outlines the characteristics and qualifications required of a new hire to look after your email marketing.

I'd only add, "Ability to explain job at parties without ending up being blamed for pornographic spam," which is one of the key challenges faced by email marketers today.

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