To answer my own question from my recent blog post "Have Social Networks Killed the Birthday Email?" I say no, they haven't. In fact, the birthday email, the anniversary reminder and similar email messages could help keep email relevant and alive as a marketing channel.

What has to change, however, is the way email marketers approach their own email programs.

Why has social networking taken off like a rocket over the last two to three years? Because people are hungry to connect and share information with each other in any way they can.

Social networks let them do that easily and in exciting new ways. They can meet up with people from their past (think Classmates.com), with people they'd like to meet (think LinkedIn or Twitter) or with friends and family in new ways (think Facebook).

Social Media Is Changing the Email Landscape

Email has been a connecting point, too, even though spam and overzealous companies started to pollute the channel. Today, more email users are savvy and sophisticated about how they manage their email. Their expectations and use of email are evolving, both from years of experience and from their involvement with social networking.

Marketers who don't understand or respond to this rapid and radical change in expectations will likely see their email programs decline in performance and engagement. In short, email needs to become even more "social" in its tone, personality, conversational style and relevance.

Work Harder to Stand Out in the Inbox

In my Email Insider column, "Will Social Media Kill the Email Star?" I urge marketers to think about how the inbox has evolved over the years, to find ways to make their messages stand out, and to get management buy-in for the resources you need to take your email program to the higher level you need to maintain your program's ROI.

This isn't a new plea. However, social-network notifications, which are triggered emails that speak directly to the recipient instead of a broadcast audience, up the ante even more.

This doesn't mean you necessarily have to throw out your entire email program and start over. However, you do need to rethink how your emails are positioned relative to this influx of social network emails and increased volume of commercial messages--and what your subscribers want and expect from you in this environment.

These changes go beyond adding share-to-social links in your emails and are really about creating an email experience for your subscribers that reflects what you know about them and when, what and how they want to be communicated to from your company.

It also isn't simply about turning your emails into 140-character Tweets. It is, however, about recognizing that many email subscribers now expect less selling and more education, less corporate speak and more personality, content and recommendations from their peers. And they likely expect all of those to be done in a manner that is short, sweet and scannable on a mobile device.

Are your personal expectations with email changing? Are you making changes in your email program to reflect this new social environment? Let us know your observations in the comments section.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 4:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We all know how the Web and email have changed the way we communicate with each other and with companies, but the light bulb really went on for me when I looked at the ways friends, co-workers and peers sent me greetings before, on and after my recent birthday.

First, here's the tally of how and from whom I received happy birthday wishes:

1 - direct mail (Southwest Airlines)
1 - personal phone call from our Lexus dealer
1 - work email (a savvy co-worker who thought an email would be more special and different)
2 – emails from companies (Olympus, Pasta Pomodoro)
2 - Twitter direct message (this is a one-to-one private message)
7 - Twitter @replies (these are public messages)
7 - in person (wife, two daughters and four members of The Cheesecake Factory waitstaff)
33 - Facebook messages via Facebook's new home page feed and email notifications

The first time I viewed many of the Facebook wishes was via email notifications that let me know someone had posted a note on my Facebook wall.

They really stood out in my inbox, whereas on the marketing side, the commercial interactions were the same old thing: "Free shipping!" "XX percent off!" "Buy now!"

Only two marketers used the personal data I have willingly shared with them--in this case, my birth date--to send me unique, personal and relevant messages.

On top of this comes the Nielsen Online survey claiming that social networks and blogs have become more popular online activities than email.

I'll be exploring what this all means for email marketing in future blog posts and my Email Insider column, but for now this insight stands out:

The evolution in digital communication channels and the ways people are using them mean marketers have to work harder on building relevance, using the customer data they have to send more relevant, targeted messages.

Just mail-merging someone's name into the subject line doesn't make this happen. Nor is this another plea for segmentation. Rather, it means creating emails that are more personal, sound more like a dialogue than a TV pitch and reflect some personality other than "sell, sell, sell!"

Otherwise, they'll fade into insignificance next to the emails that speak to a subscriber's personal interests and relationships.

If you have thoughts about how social networking is intersecting with email and the implications for marketers, I'd love to see them. Post them in the comments below, and stay tuned for more on the changing use of digital communications.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple just continues to do cool stuff. The other day I was at my local Apple retail store buying a (ridiculously overpriced) case for my iPhone. Its checkout process is nifty. I was most impressed when the "genius" behind the counter hit me with a question I'd never heard before: "Would you like your receipt printed or emailed?" I was a little bit stunned, since I'd never had to consider this option before. But it didn't take me long to figure out my preference: "Emailed please." Apple already had my email address paired with my credit card (presumably through my iTunes account), so all it had to do was confirm my email address and voila–receipt sent.

Like the curious gadget-carrier that I am, I was able to check that email account on my iPhone as I was leaving the store, and sure enough ... the receipt was in my inbox. Awesome!

This transactional email offering is great in so many ways it's hard to list all of the benefits, but here are a few:

• For Me: I get a receipt, but I don't have to stuff it in my pocket, wallet or the bag. I can wait 'till I get home to my computer and organize it, ignore it forever or just search for it if I ever need it for any reason.
• For Apple: reduced paper cost, increased coolness, increased green-ness and one more way to amaze (and engage) customers with its innovativeness.
• For Mother Earth: fewer trees sacrificed for paper receipts.

Yet as cool as Apple is, there's still room to do it better. Why not take advantage of the fact that transactional messages can include some promotional content? When Apple sends the receipt for my iPhone case, it should include a coupon for some cutting-edge earbuds or a cool new application in the app store. Since transactional emails are the most likely type to be opened, why not take advantage of that captive audience and show them something else they might be interested in? A number of Silverpop clients send branded Transactional emails that entice shoppers back.

In the end, though, it's a big success for Apple. Color me impressed and thoroughly engaged thanks to Apple's cutting-edge use of transactional email.

Posted by Whit Lanier at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There’s one thing there's no shortage of in the email industry: Opinions on the best way (meaning "the only way") to do email marketing.

Three examples of hot debates: Does single opt-in rule or double opt-in? Check the permission box in advance or leave it unchecked? Retain inactives or remove them?

If you're a marketer, you've probably gone looking for the definitive answer to these and other issues in many places, such as industry blogs, columns like Email Insider or ClickZ, Webinars featuring industry leaders, workshops, etc. And if you have, you know there are as many opinions on the "best" way as there are "experts" expressing them in blog posts, columns or white papers.

The trouble is, the “right” answer is often “It depends,” not “Never do this or that.” In fact, the right answer for you and your email program and company could be all wrong for another company that runs its email marketing program differently.

In my recent Email Insider column, "Everything I Tell You Is Wrong," I suggest that the best way to sort through all this conflicting advice is to focus on the logical aspects in the debates over best-practice recommendations instead of the black-and-white insistence on one approach over another. Then, test, test and retest to find what works for your company.

Read the column to see why "It depends" is sometimes the best answer in the three current best-practice debates: whether single or double opt-in works best, prechecked versus unchecked permission boxes, and whether to remove or retain inactives.

I do believe there are "generally accepted best practices"—such as using welcome emails, gaining permission, and optimizing for blocked images—but implementing them has no single "right" way.

Have a favorite email practice for which the right answer is "It depends"? Let us know in the comments below.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Even though sharing email content with social networks and sites is still a new concept for most people, enlisting your subscribers to spread your message to their networks is rapidly becoming a standard email marketing practice.

My previous Engagement Marketing blog post explained why people share content with family, friends and peers and revealed the general qualities that make one email shareworthy and another one not.

This time I'll outline six design and content ideas that can help increase the shareworthiness of your emails:

1. Target the right social networks and media. The hottest social site on the Internet might not be the right fit for your subscribers or market niche.

2. Explain how to use your social-sharing feature in your welcome email and in regular program emails. Include instructions in both the welcome email and the first few email messages you send that include a sharing function. Then, either link to an explanation page on your Web site, or put instructions in your email footer and link to it using inline navigation.

3. Test the share function design, location and copy. Use text links and the social networks' logos to be sure people see them with or without images enabled. Also, test which locations of the share links within your emails deliver the most clicks and shares.

4. Highlight shareworthy content. Make your content actionable and easy to read. A European airline saw strong sharing results with a compelling and simple free-travel offer: "100% Discount for Your Beloved One."

5. Track how readers use your social-sharing features, and then use that information to refine your content. Over time, consider segmenting out your high-value or frequent sharers from the rest of the pack, and send them special offers or content.

6. Test, refine and test again. Like everything in email marketing, what works for one company might fall flat at yours; so, test everything.

I go into more detail about these tactics in my latest Email Insider column, "More On Making Your Emails Shareworthy."

Posted by Loren McDonald at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)