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November 16, 2009
How to Avoid the FISUE Syndrome
I have an explanation for why people click the spam button on so-called "legitimate" email: the "Forgot I Signed Up for Email" (FISUE) Syndrome.
This often happens when people sign up for Webinars, free trials or buy something online. They either forgot they signed up or didn't realize that being added to your regular email program came with their transaction.
You must make a clear case to your subscribers that your email is in their inboxes at their invitation. If not, FISUE Syndrome will claim another victim.
Was That Email Spam? Or Just Spam-Like?
Earlier this year, I received an email from a presentation company that I was sure I had never heard of nor done business with.
I was about to send the company a nasty email but decided to sort my emails on its sender name. Presto!
Turns out I had actually received five previous emails from this company, but several had different "From" names and branding. I also never received a welcome email. (I may have signed up for a company-sponsored Webinar several months earlier and provided my email address during registration.)
In short, I didn't know who this company was or whether I knowingly opted in for email, and I still don't.
Mistakes that Cause FISUE Syndrome
This company committed some of the common mistakes that lead to FISUE Syndrome: - From/Sender Names: Of the six emails I had received, the company used five different "From" names. Bad. Pick a simple, logical "From" name and stick with it.
- Welcome Email: It did not send a confirmation email, let alone a well-crafted welcome email. It could have thanked me for opting in, told me more about the company or service, or linked to a white paper.
- Design: The emails have an amateurish look and feel. This told me the company was not serious about email marketing practices and contributed to my sense that this latest email was unsolicited.
- Frequency: I discovered that I received the six emails in August, September and October 2008, one in April and two in July 2009. No wonder I didn't remember this company.
How to Minimize FISUE
Follow some basic rules that apply when emailing to a new address:
Investing the extra effort to make your emails unforgettable is your best defense against the FISUE Syndrome.
October 19, 2009
Email: In Transition, Not Fading Away
Has email outlived its usefulness in a communications world where social networks generate the most buzz? Or, is it still a vital part of this evolving world?
The email industry has been debating those questions since a Wall Street Journal writer suggested that email is on its way out.
I agree with her initial assertion that communication patterns are shifting, especially in personal email use.
For me, Twitter direct messages (one-to-one private messages) have replaced email when I need a quick response or my primary relationship with someone is on Twitter. For other situations, email remains the most efficient means of communicating when I have to say more than will fit into a few 140-character Tweets.
However, I disagree that email's time is up. On the contrary: Email is the linchpin of a diverse network of communication channels, which users will customize to meet their unique and personal needs.
For example, some users will rely on Twitter direct messages, Facebook postings or text messages when they want instant access to friends and family.
Instead of emailed flight check-in reminders or weather advisories, they'll opt to receive them in SMS or text messaging. Organizing an event might be more efficient in Facebook than by repeated emailing to a group.
You don't lose access to your customers if they don't want emailed payment reminders anymore. You just need to offer the channel that best suits their individual needs and preferences.
The Case for Email Marketing
Too many things have to happen before commercial email will die.
First, recipients have to stop opening, acting on and converting from email.
Next, marketers have to stop sending email. Given that commercial email goes beyond the standard broadcast message to include lifecycle communications triggered by customer behavior, this is not likely to happen.
Finally, companies would have to halt their transition from print to digital communications. That's not likely, either, because the infrastructure currently supports email, not Twitter or Facebook.
Also, many companies are increasingly seeing how email can support business goals, solve problems and save money all the way through the organization, such as resolving customer issues via email instead of through a more expensive call center, or sending prospectuses or reports in email instead of spending money on paper and postage.
Social Network Limitations
Until something better comes along, no social network can replicate the positives of the email experience and eliminate the negatives.
Many network messages are ephemeral. If you aren't paying attention when a friend Tweets a message, or if you go days without checking your Facebook page, you'll miss those messages unless they are sent directly to you, you hunt them down, or you have them emailed to you. (This is another vital use for email in a social networking age.)
Assuming you have decent delivery, your email messages will sit in the inbox until your recipient opens it, deletes it or moves it to a folder for better management.
Many messages aren't suited to the public exposure of a social network. Email offers privacy, space to develop your message unhindered by a 140-character limit, and easy access.
Finally, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn (three of the best-known social networks) can't match the rich experience of a well-crafted email message: images, navigation, the space to provide inviting copy, and multiple facets such as product info, promotions and articles.
Marketers Cautioned: The Real Enemy Is "Us"
As the cartoon character Pogo once proclaimed, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
While the explosion of mobile applications and social media outlets is clearly creating shifts in email and channel usage, bad marketing practices will likely have the biggest negative impact on our beloved channel.
These are just a few activities that will take a few years off the life expectancy of email marketing: - Poor permission and opt-in practices. Consumers don't know or care what the CAN-SPAM Act allows. Getting permission is a must.
- Lack of relevance. The vast majority of emails sent today are one-size-fits-all, lacking any personalization or segmentation based on preferences and demographic or behavioral data. The "blast" has probably had the single biggest negative impact on email marketing's vitality.
- Overmailing. Marketers have gone crazy with frequency. The mantra at many companies seems to be "Heck, if six times a month works, let's send 12 times." This might work in direct mail, but in email, this is a strategy that generally backfires in the long run.
- Lack of differentiation. I subscribe to dozens of emails from retailers, and quite frankly, I see little difference between most of them. Every subject line is almost identical—"Free shipping and 20% off"—and the content and design of the emails do not leverage the actual differentiation among these various brands.
- Lack of personality. The more successful brands have discovered that people are turned off by faceless corporate-speak. People are attracted to communication that is real, transparent, human and full of life.
- Poor design. Messages that don't render properly across browsers, email clients and platforms (basic cellphone, smartphone, desktop or laptop computers) are simply annoying to recipients.
Email as a marketing channel is not likely to die anytime soon. But its efficacy is clearly at an inflection point.
As a global community, the choice is ours: to change our ways and make the channel as vibrant as ever, or watch it head into a long and painful slide into irrelevance.
September 25, 2009
The "Bulletproof" Button
We all know that image blocking by ISPs and email clients can wreak havoc with your HTML emails and affect click-throughs and conversions.
This is particularly a critical issue with image-based call-to-action (CTA) buttons. But all hope is not lost.
In our recent Webinar, "Using Innovations in Email Creative to Drive Increased Engagement," Aaron Smith and Lisa Harmon of the email creative agency Smith-Harmon outlined a great technique that enables email marketers to use image-based buttons but still convey the CTA if images are blocked.
Here is Smith-Harmon's "bullet-proof" button approach:
Continue reading "The "Bulletproof" Button " »
September 19, 2009
Silverpop Share-to-Social Study Establishes New Benchmarks
Sharing email messages on social networks can increase your reach by exposing your messages to large audiences beyond your subscribers in ways forwarding to friends can't match.
That's one finding revealed in Silverpop's new study, "Emails Gone Viral: Measuring 'Share to Social' Performance," now available as a free report.
This new study analyzes key aspects of social sharing and uses a new series of benchmark metrics we created to report our findings. Leverage these benchmarks to assess the performance of your own social-sharing program or to forecast what you might expect before launching a campaign.
study report also presents a detailed set of best-practice recommendations and a comprehensive list of additional resources to help you maximize the benefit of your email social-sharing initiatives.
5 Key Study Findings
1. Share-to-Social significantly outperforms FTAF. Even though social sharing is still new to email marketing and consumers in general, it is already outperforming that old standard, forward to a friend. We found that organic social sharing rates (done without an incentive or reward) average 0.5 percent, compared to an estimated 0.1 percent or less when sharing via forward-to-a-friend links. Based on an average overall click-through-rate of approximately 5 percent, this means that 1 out of 10 clicks is on a social sharing link.
Continue reading "Silverpop Share-to-Social Study Establishes New Benchmarks" »
August 18, 2009
Relevance: "The Right Message" at "The Right Time?"
Saying "relevance" is the key to success in email marketing is a bit like saying something is "American as motherhood and apple pie." Whether you've heard the phrase before or not, you can probably guess the general meaning, but what does it really mean?
Similarly, "relevance" in reference to email marketing success is generally understand and agreed upon. But we don't really have a single, agreed-on definition for the term, let alone the elements that go into making an email relevant to recipients.
So, on a whim recently, I polled the Twitter community, asking people how they defined email marketing "relevance." Here's a sampling of the responses:
Continue reading "Relevance: "The Right Message" at "The Right Time?"" »
August 14, 2009
Email Practices of Top Online Retailers - Upcoming Webinar
How are email marketing practices of the top online retailers changing, for the better or worse? Find out at a free Webinar on Thursday August 20 at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT, when I present results from Silverpop's latest study comparing the email practices of retailers from Internet Retailer's Top 500 list and 395 additional companies.
Continue reading "Email Practices of Top Online Retailers - Upcoming Webinar" »
August 4, 2009
Resources for Your Email Marketing Education
My most recent Email Insider column outlines the specialized knowledge email marketers need to have to run their programs successfully. It goes well beyond the basics you learned back in Marketing 101:
1. Email strategy
2. List-building/acquisition
3. Email design
4. Deliverability
5. Copywriting
6. Database marketing
7. Legal issues
8. Email trends and best practices
You can find more detail about each topic in the full column: "Email Success Requires Well-Educated Marketers."
If you're ready to start learning or take your program to the next level, following is my quick list of email resources to bookmark, download, read, buy or attend. This is not intended to be an all-encompassing list but rather a "get started list"—which I will expand and update in Silverpop's Resources center in the coming months.
1. Books: These step-by-step manuals explain the principles of effective email marketing. My shortlist:
2. White Papers/Research: Dozens get published every month, most often by email service providers or consultants. The most useful ones go beyond promotion to deliver solid information on best practices, the state of the industry and more.
3. Blogs: These are some blogs you should bookmark and visit often or get updates on via email or RSS reader:
- Silverpop blogs--Besides this Engagement Marketing blog, also check out Bill Nussey's "Email Marketing Strategy Blog" and "Demand Generation" for B2B marketers.
- "No Man is an Iland"--Written by independent consultant Mark Brownlow, one of email's sharpest writers and my personal favorite blog for the last several years.
- "Be Relevant"--Tamara Gielen tracks and circulates the best blog posts so you don't have to.
- Deliverability.com--Breaking news, thoughts and advice from people on the deliverability front lines.
- RetailEmail Blog--From Chad White, now with the email creative agency Smith-Harmon.
4. Email Newsletters on Email Marketing: Almost all these are examples of best practices in action, not just for content but also formatting, delivery, etc.:
5. Webinars: Most are free, and in any given month there are probably 20 to 30 presented in the industry. Silverpop and other vendors present these email marketing Webinars either on their own or via publisher sponsorships.
6. Conferences: Rub elbows with other marketers and get tips, answers and advice from experts. Here are just a few examples:
7. Online Communities: Post your questions and help out fellow marketers:
8. Twitter: Great forum for news, advice and commentary. Start by following these folks (don't forget @LorenMcDonald and @Silverpop):
Your Suggestions?
This list is just a start. If you have a favorite information source you'd like to share, I urge you to post it in the comments section below.
June 30, 2009
Fight "Cheap Email" Trend by Emphasizing Value
When a company finds itself struggling for sales in a tight economy, the first response is often to start competing on prices.
Although price slashing, discounts and other costly promotions can bring short-terms gains, they could end up tarnishing your email program if you simply turn it into "the discount channel."
Frequent discount offers simply train your customers to wait for a deal before pulling the sales trigger. Your best customers, though, will likely be more interested in getting better value for their money than yet another 20 percent discount that all of your subscribers receive. When every other commercial email is pushing the same promotions, your email is fighting harder to stand out in the inbox.
How to do it? Find ways to strengthen your relationship with your brand-loyal, high-value customers. These are the people who will continue to buy from you, but you must offer something more tangible than another free-shipping promotion.
Use customer data to create targeted or lifecycle messages, such as shopping-cart reminders, cross-selling, upselling and restocking reminders, which build on preference data or previous purchases.
If big-ticket items aren't moving, feature lower-cost alternatives, such as a pair of earrings that match a previous necklace purchase, or a three-day domestic cruise instead of two weeks in Italy.
Keeping email a high-value, high-return channel will help you resist the trend toward turning email into a low-value discount channel. I talk about this in more depth in my recent Email Insider column, "Strategies to Meet 5 Macro Trends Altering Email."
The other four strategies:
- Market with global sensitivity to avoid sending culturally irrelevant emails.
- Use a mix of channels--microblogging, social networks and email--to speed news and communications.
- Build engagement to break through "attention distraction" from channels that compete for your readers' eyes.
- Give your email messages a distinct personality through looks and "voice."
I welcome your comments about these strategies and what you're doing to help maintain your email program's value in these stressful times.
May 1, 2009
Should You Use Rich Media in Email Messages?
Rich media, like Flash and video, is immensely popular in Web-based communications. If a picture is worth a thousand words, isn't animation worth, well, something significantly larger? Rich media--usually defined as a combination of graphics, audio, video and animation--can be a great way to pique interest and deliver content in a limited amount of screen real estate. And for email marketers working with precious "above the fold" space to get a recipient action, that's a good thing.
We get a lot of questions about whether to include rich media in email messages. And while my knee-jerk response is an emphatic "no," there are a lot of ways to include different content in your emails without including it in your emails. Confused? Let me explain.
As you may know, there are a lot of different rules about designing for email as opposed to the Web. Every inbox provider renders a little bit differently, so it's best to make sure you render consistently for as much of your audience as you can. This is one of the biggest challenges with pushing the envelope with different media types.
Now back to my point: You can include this media without including it, and have the same effect and layout. Creative use of screenshots makes a great stand-in substitute. Having an alternate image that makes the recipient "click to play" in a new window serves two purposes. First, you've incented a recipient action--congratulations! Second, you're closer to driving a conversion, because the recipient is already on your landing page or Web site.
Use rich media wisely, and you can be enhancing your return on your next email campaign.
April 29, 2009
Does Your Marketing Department Own Transactional Emails?
The title of Silverpop's most recent Webinar says it all: "Transactional Emails: Loved by Recipients, Neglected by Marketers."
In this Webinar (view below), Silverpop Product Marketing Manager Whit Lanier and I showed how transactional messages, which are highly relevant to recipients, can drive engagement when you add carefully chosen marketing content to a branded design consistent with your promotional emails and newsletters.
For many marketers, though, these are an overlooked opportunity, often because the responsibility for transactional emails belongs in another department.
In my latest Email Insider column, "Transactional Emails: Make Your First Impression Count," I review the reasons why moving transactional emails into the marketing department makes sense, not just because you can create more useful and attractive messages but also because you can more easily monitor recipient actions and deliverability, as you do with your other branded email.
The following question on using HTML in transactional emails was the most asked question during and after the Webinar:
Q: There's the perception that transactional messages are text messages, and recipients have been trained for that. If you move to a more visual approach with images and HTML, doesn't that make them more suspicious-looking? Will it increase deliverability challenges?
A: Not necessarily, if you do them correctly. If you design transactional messages with the right brand, with HTML text that renders with images blocked, and if you test the message template first with a tool such as Pivotal Veracity to check for spam-filter triggers in content or design, you should minimize any deliverability issues and avoid raising trust issues.
Four tips:
- The subject line must be crystal-clear: "Confirming your purchase from XYZ Online," for example, instead of "Order Confirmation."
- Use a friendly "from" address that names the company or department that generated the transaction: "XYZ Online" instead of a vague email address.
- Always place the details of the transaction front and center in the message to comply with CAN-SPAM requirements. Place promotional content below or to the side of the transactional content.
- Always check with your legal counsel if you have any concerns.
April 13, 2009
Don't Fear the Unsubscribe!
The unsubscribe is perhaps the most misunderstood and ignored element of an email program. But given that a best practices unsubscribe process minimizes damage to your brand, aids deliverability and can help retain subscribers, it's worth a closer look.
Good Practice: Make It Easy to Unsubscribe
Unsubscribing is a normal part of the email relationship, and using tricks to make it difficult to opt out will backfire with an increase in spam complaints. Alternately, a trustworthy unsubscribe process can help your deliverability by leading more people to use it instead of clicking the spam button, deleting your emails unopened or leaving you when they migrate to a new email address.
Start by labeling your unsubscribe link clearly and in the same size type as you use in your email's main message, and use a text link instead of an image-based link so readers can see it even with blocked images. Locate the link in the same place in every message, preferably in an email administrative footer. In certain situations, such as when sending to segments that are completely inactive or have high spam-complaint rates, consider including an unsubscribe link near the top of your message.
Find more thoughts about where to locate the unsubscribe link in my Email Insider column, "The Unsubscribe Link Location: Top, Bottom or Both?"
Better Practice: Make It Easy for Subscribers to Do What They Really Want
Yes, you should keep the express lane open for subscribers who really want off your list. But some just want to change an aspect of their subscription, like their email address, format, interests or frequency.
Suggest alternatives along with the unsubscribe, and let them know in your newsletter that they can either unsubscribe or change preferences easily. You'll end up retaining more subscribers, even if they move to another communication channel.
Best Practice: Make Your Email Program Irresistible
Think about the reasons people unsubscribe:
- Emails come too frequently
- Lack of relevance
- Email content isn't what they expected
- Their interests changed
- Never really wanted your emails to begin with
Look at every aspect of your email program for ways to improve it. Consider these:
- Be explicit at opt-in about what you send and when
- Add a welcome program
- Use subscriber data to segment your list and send targeted, personalized messages
- Move to a lifecycle program or triggered messages instead of bath-and-blast broadcasts
- Design attractive messages that render well with or without images, regardless of platform, and tell your story with well-written copy.
Unsubscribes are generally a sign that you've failed with some aspect of your email program. Embrace this and work to improve those areas that aren't meeting subscriber expectations. However, don't fear the unsubscribe, because by making this option easier, you'll minimize more-damaging spam complaints.
If you still have questions or doubts, post them below.
March 30, 2009
Why Email Needs to Become More 'Social'
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.
March 13, 2009
Email Marketing Best Practices: Sometimes, 'It Depends' Is the Right Answer
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.
March 4, 2009
Six Tactics to Make Your Email More Shareworthy
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."
December 19, 2008
Your Email Marketing To-Do List for 2009
Is email marketing all about tactics? No, of course not. But you might think so if you looked at the inventory of speeches, articles and blog posts from throughout the industry. Tactics are worthless unless they are based on a solid strategy, but poor execution of a solid strategy is just as problematic.
Successful email marketing doesn't have an "easy" button. Dozens of elements come together to deploy a world-class email program. Ignoring or not optimizing one aspect can sabotage other aspects of your program that you've done well.
The single most important way you can improve your email performance is to increase relevance through greater use of segmentation and dynamic content. So put this at the top of your "2009 To-Do List."
Following that, as you look ahead to 2009, consider tackling some of the following tactics to take your program to the next level. To view more detail behind these tactics and find links to earlier columns, read my recent Email Insider column, "Your 2009 To-Do List: There Is No 'Easy Button.'"
1. Focus on business metrics.
2. Instill trust.
3. Communicate. Don't just sell.
4. Lift engagement with a new-subscriber welcome program.
5. Incorporate behavioral data into your email program.
6. Turn the frequency question into a customer-touch strategy.
7. Reduce unsubscribes and spam complaints.
8. Minimize list churn and inactives.
9. Incorporate social media, user-generated content and social networks into your email program.
10. Optimize for blocked images, preview panes and multiple devices.
11. Improve your deliverability.
12. Minimize stupid mistakes and oversights.
13. Focus on retention and engagement.
14. Enable subscriber choice with preference centers.
I've obviously left off many other email tactics, so let me know what's on your To-Do List for the coming year.
October 29, 2008
Do Your Emails Create Value Beyond Just Selling?
I've been thinking a lot lately about the role of email marketing, particularly in an environment of growing customer control, emerging communication channels and the current global economic environment. I come to only one conclusion: Marketers' "batch-and-blast" approach and mentality must evolve to one that endeavors to speak as directly as possible to each recipient in a voice that resonates with each individual on their lists.
This means replacing, or at least supplementing, the usual deal-of-the-week email with messages that recognize the relationships and interactions you have with your customers, moving beyond the usual selling mentality to incorporate a healthy focus on communications and retention.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels that companies are falling short in their communications. A recent Opinion Research Corp. poll found 46 percent of bank customers and 42 percent of mutual-fund investors don't believe their financial services companies are communicating enough with them in these turbulent days.
We are in a period where customers are more sensitive to price and value for their dollar and more likely to shop around and compare features and benefits, looking for the best deal. So, it becomes critical that marketers communicate trust and value with every message.
One way to increase relevance and loyalty is to create messages that provide additional value, including emails that: - Update
- Remind
- Educate
- Simplify
- Listen
I explain some of these more fully in a recent Email Insider column, but you can see that these types of emails do more than just promote the latest offers. They speak to their subscribers as individuals, an accomplishment, when handled correctly, that makes the messages more valuable and more relevant.
Have you recast your email program to align with your customers' needs, or do you have other functions that email can provide aside from the ones I listed here? I would love to hear about them.
September 26, 2008
Do Your Emails Need Ketchup?
While on vacation recently, I had one of the best hamburgers I've ever eaten: a Kobe beef Havarti cheeseburger with ripe red tomatoes, caramelized onions, wild arugula and, of course, Havarti cheese on a premium beef patty. As I stared at my freshly served gourmet burger, with a bottle of ketchup and jar of Dijon mustard in the background, I faced a critical decision:
Should I do what I and many fellow Americans do, which is to pour a liberal amount of ketchup on the burger and add some mustard on the bun, or should I bite in to the burger first to enjoy its various "natural" flavors?
It wasn't a decision on the magnitude of whether to loan $700 billion to U.S. financial institutions, but this gorgeous burger's appearance made me rethink a near life-long habit of automatically adding a dose of Heinz ketchup to my all-beef patty.
Later on, I realized, as I often do, that my dilemma paralleled a common situation in email marketing. Most marketers also automatically add "ketchup" in the form of discounts, free shipping and other common incentives to their emails, when what they really need is a better-tasting burger.
Now, marketers deploy these tactics for a reason. Incentives and sweeteners produce results, and, in most cases, still deliver a great return-on-investment. But what if you didn't need ketchup—er, incentives?
So, here's my challenge to email marketers: Rethink your $6 email burger and serve up a $15 version instead.
Remember, the success of my $15 burger (with garlic fries) rested on the quality of the ingredients: homemade (or homemade-looking) buns, fresh produce, gourmet cheese and high-quality Kobe beef.
Now, these are key ingredients that will turn your fast-food email burger into a mouth-watering gourmet burger that will generate a higher ROI and improved margins because you need fewer incentives: - Messages tailored to individual recipients based on their demographics or behavior
- A welcome program that sets expectations and creates value for new subscribers out of the gate and confirms that their decision to opt in to your email program was a good one
- Creative subject lines that motivate people to take the action they (and you) want, not just open the email
- Emails designed to render well on multiple environments and platforms—PC, Web and mobile
- Creative and compelling copy that motivates people to want to know more and act
- A competitively positioned email program, which serves a clear need to recipients relative to your competitors’ offerings
- Emails with genuine personality that provide a reason for subscribers to anticipate your next message
- Emails designed from a user perspective, making it easy for subscribers to find the information and links they need to take the action they want, anything from changing their preferences to buying your latest widget.
Incentives and sweeteners will always play a role in email programs, but as you retool your email program—designing it from the ground up, with better ingredients—they may become less important to your success.
I'd love to hear feedback from readers who have been able to decrease their reliance on incentives and offers simply by improving the quality of the elements in their email program.
And, if you are ever in Laguna Beach, Calif, I recommend you stop at the Sapphire Laguna restaurant and order the Kobe beef Havarti cheeseburger. But, hold the ketchup!
September 25, 2008
Metrics Matter More These Days
A report just published by JupiterResearch found that measurement is the top challenge for online advertisers, and the top agency differentiator for advertisers looking for an agency.
Savvy marketers realize that you can only achieve solid improvement on campaign elements that you actually take the time to measure. Demonstrating returns on investment—that’s what it is all about for marketers everywhere these days as the global economy continues to tighten. Email marketers have the upper hand here.
The great thing about email marketing is its ability to be evaluated quickly and effectively. If you're not evaluating past campaign performance, you’re missing out on key insights that can improve results. You can evaluate a campaign in real-time, demonstrating exactly what is working and what is not, and then easily make adjustments as needed. That’s a very powerful and convincing point to be able to make to the CFO seeking to slash costs.
An example of a good metric to monitor is click action. Email marketers can use the kind of robust reporting capabilities available with top email marketing solutions to track link activity and determine which links get the most clicks and which under-perform.. As a result, you can reduce the number of links in emails to avoid confusing subscribers and focus on the links that provide value to recipients and drive conversions.
There's a wealth of customer data in your email reports. Use it to create campaigns that produce huge results and show the boss exactly what kind of returns you're getting.
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