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.

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.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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" »

Posted by Loren McDonald at 4:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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)

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)

I recently returned from the second annual Email Evolution Conference (EEC), where presentations, panel discussions and personal conversations showed that marketers are beginning to understand how email and social networking can work together to better engage with customers and prospects.

Many sessions touched on the growing importance of social media—going where your customers are—and integrating email into a company's social marketing efforts. To underscore this, many attendees were posting live Tweets (updates on Twitter) under their employers’ Twitter brands.

Social media is clearly exploding like nothing the marketing world has seen in years, probably since the Internet explosion itself. Email will not disappear anytime soon, but the growth in social media adoption does provide both challenges and opportunities for email marketers.

Are Your Emails 'Shareworthy'?

So, what does it all mean for you? To start with, you should look at the emails you send in a new light: Are they "shareworthy”?

In other words, does your email content encourage your subscribers to share your emails with their tribes (friends, family or peers) on their social networks?

Ever since Silverpop went live in 2008 with its "Share-to-Social" function, which lets email subscribers post email content on their social networks, I've been thinking about what actually motivates someone to share content.

My latest Email Insider column, "Are Your Emails 'Shareworthy'?" outlines six reasons that people share:

• They want to contribute to the conversation.
• Sharing serves their self-interest.
• They want to help others.
• Sharing validates their self-worth.
• Sharing with likeminded people makes them feel part of a community.
• Sharing prurient or shocking material makes them feel less guilt at gawking.

Once you understand why people share, you can tailor your content around the attributes you think would prompt people to post your emails to their networks.

Factors That Contribute to 'Shareworthiness'

However, you can't just count on appealing to your subscribers' altruistic or ego-feeding natures to have your emails shared. Your emails must also address these key factors:

• Trustworthiness that makes a subscriber willing to attach his or her personal brand to your content
• Tribal interests, e.g. what "tribes," or interest groups, comprise your list and what motivates them
• Simplicity of message
• Ease of sharing
• Social adoption and acumen of your subscribers
• Obvious value for the sharer and shares
• Rewards or incentives that tap into reasons why people share
• Well-written, timely and relevant content

I go into more detail in my current Email Insider column, "Are Your Emails 'Shareworthy'?" Watch for a follow-up post with advice on creating emails that your subscribers will want to forward, post and tweet. In the meantime, feel free to post your comments below or mention emails that had truly "shareworthy" content.

Posted by Loren McDonald at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Despite the growing popularity of online social networking, these social networking sites remain largely untapped by online marketers. And, it appears people like it that way.

According to a survey by media research form IDC quoted in this Dec. 5 article by eMarketer, people don't want brands following them around in social networks trying to strike up conversations. IDC reported that just 3 percent of social network users polled said it was appropriate for publishers to use their contact information in order to serve them targeted advertising.

With a slowed economy and the lukewarm reception for even targeted advertising, eMarketer projects social network ad spending will slow even more than other forms of online ad spending.

But (and this is a big but), email marketers who understand and respect the culture of the social networking environment can be both welcomed and successful there. Instead of intruding on your customers' and prospects' social spaces, you can be invited in and introduced to their friends. If you haven't already checked it out, download the white paper "Email Marketing Goes Social" by logging in to our preference center. It will give you lots of tips on how to get started. When you play by the community's rules, you become part of what makes it valuable to its participants rather than the noise that detracts from it.

Posted by Scott Voigt at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last month, we rolled out a shiny new feature we dubbed “Share-to-Social,” which enables email recipients to click a button in an email to share their favorite messages with their contacts/friends in their social networks. Not only that, but we made sure the marketers using this feature could track the results. (You can check out my blog post about it here.)

Well, we didn’t stop there. This month we added the same capabilities to our Landing Pages application, which enables marketers to easily create landing pages coordinated with their emails.

Also, we’ve added a few new social networks to the mix. We’re up to five and counting: Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.

After email, landing pages are a natural next step for sharing marketing content into social networks. Think about it. MarketingSherpa estimates that up to 50 percent of visitors to a landing page will abandon it in the first eight seconds. So, for people who stick around, we’re talking about either: the most highly engaged visitors and/or the very best landing pages, able to grab attention and keep it. Either way, these are pages with a high propensity for going viral. They yielded the first click. They can yield the next. And the next.

If you’re taking the time to create fantastic, thoughtful landing pages that recipients are most likely to share, then this is one capability you definitely want to consider adding to your email toolkit.

Posted by Scott Voigt at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rosetta just came out with an interesting study covered by DMNews that really caught my attention.

According to the interactive marketing agency, 59 percent of the top 100 U.S. online retailers now have a page on Facebook. And, that’s nearly twice as many just since April.

Rosetta attributes the rush to social media sites to a desire by marketers to connect to customers in the myriad ways that social media provide—from updates, to promotional offers to customer service forums, etc.

But the agency cautions that if you decide to create a presence on a social media site, you must be committed to maintaining it and using it as a real forum for communicating with customers. For social media to work, you must be candid and open, and let people post negative comments as well as positive ones.

Along those lines, another study by Universal McCann found that 29 percent of Internet users surveyed had commented on a product or brand on a blog, and 27 percent had posted an opinion on a social networking profile.

According to the report’s author, the Internet age has given consumers a larger voice, and the ability of a single person to publish opinions of a brand has given rise to an “influence economy” where brands must become more transparent.

Posted by Elaine O'Gorman at 4:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of us at one time or another been forwarded a great email campaign, or have passed one along ourselves. But as email marketers, we know that creating a successful viral campaign is actually pretty tough to do. Email forward rates are low; recipients find forwarding to large groups time-consuming, or they worry that you’ll spam their friends if they use your form. For marketers, forwarding can break your HTML, and it can be difficult to track actions on the forwarded message.

But what if it suddenly got a whole lot easier for your campaigns to spread? If your recipients could quickly and easily share their favorite email messages, so that your message could reach not only your customers, but their friends, and their friends, too? And what if you could identify which recipients shared your content, and how many views and clicks each piece of shared content generated? Imagine what you could do with that kind of information.

By integrating social networking and email marketing, you can do exactly that. We at Silverpop have developed an exciting new “share-to-social” feature that allows email marketers to quickly turn emails into social-enabled viral messages. By clicking a button in their email message, recipients can quickly post the email to the profile page on their social network page—Facebook and MySpace for now, with more to come.

Branching out into social networks is a natural evolution for email. After all, social marketing is first and foremost about relationships, and successful email marketers have learned to engage customers in timely and relevant relationships. Social email marketing’s success rests on the ability to reach the right people with the right message—one they’ll want to share with others.

Posted by Scott Voigt at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)