The ExactTarget Blog

Time to Take a break and Review Your Email Acquistion program.

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Shelly Griffin

Ok..I admit it, I am not making a great start to the year when it comes to keeping up with my blog. It is soo easy to get bogged down in the day to day, that I find myself at the end of each week wondering where it went. Poof! Another week gone by in the blink of an eye. And we're only in the second month of the year..not a good sign of things to come.

Talking to clients, this same phenomenon easily takes hold of their email programs. All the best intentions to prep, plan, test, target, review, revamp are diminished by the need to get the email out the door. Poof! Another send gone...maybe next time. We all need to set time in our weeks for reflection and planning. We need more buffers in our schedules.

The first priority in any email marketing program should be a review of your email sign-up and email acquisition. This time of year is the perfect time to take some time to review the sign-up forms, how you request permission, the expectations and anticipated content for each email. Last week Stefan Pollard from ClickZ featured an article on "How to Improve your Process for Acquiring Subscribers". Set some time aside to read, reflect and then revamp your own email acquisition programs.

Email Design Tip of the Week: Web vs. Email Development

Friday, February 5, 2010 by John Maitz

How many web developers out there were around when table-based layouts and inline styling were in vogue? Ask anyone who has been coding before the modern web what it was like and they’ll say that we’ve come a long way. With the proliferation of modern CSS techniques, the adoption of accessibility in design, and a strong focus towards web standards, tables are now used for what they were originally intended for—displaying tabular data.

Unless you’ve been coding HTML since the late 90’s and/or work in a shop that develops emails for clients, you may not have formal experience in coding an HTML email. This is not a guide or a deep dive, but a brief overview of what I found helpful when starting to work with HTML for email.

Doctype

DOCTYPES are not required for email. Since the information in the <head> tag can be stripped out, a DOCTYPE shouldn’t be defined. In some cases, you can probably leave out the <head> section altogether.

Layout

Since style sheet support is not consistent from client to client, use tables to achieve your preferred layout. Also, stay away from <div> tags and margins. Layouts that are built around<div>s and margins could yield unfavorable results when you test.

Style Sheets

While most web developers know that inline styling should be avoided if possible, this doesn’t apply when styling elements in an email. Inline styling is the preferred method for applying CSS properties to your design. While support for style sheets is on the rise, you must still code for the lowest common denominator— the email client that doesn’t support this feature.
Read more about CSS Support for Email.

Block-Level Elements (<h1>, <h2>, <ul>, <p>)

While block-level elements are supported in many email clients, it is good to remember that not all clients support style-sheets.
You may also run into challenges when using padding and margins through various email clients. Since <span> tags have a default margin/padding of zero, this would be a good starting point as an alternative to using block-level elements.

Float

Previously mentioned, there are emails clients that support the float property. As you’ll likely want to code in a way that achieves the best possible rendering performance in all the major email clients, you should avoid this property. A suitable alternative would be to use nested tables. Using tables, you will achieve better control over your layout, resulting in pixel-perfect email designs.

Developing HTML for email is by no means at the forefront of modern day web development. While it might seem antiquated at times, these methods were actually once a very modern and standard practice. Until email standards exist, grasping the fundamentals of email development and careful testing for rendering are crucial skill sets that every web developer should possess in their bag of tricks.

For a deeper look at HTML for Email and other related questions, be sure to check out the ExactTarget Design Center on 3sixty!

Maine AG: State email lists are public data

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Al Iverson

As mentioned on MediaPost's Email Insider and elsewhere, the Maine Attorney General's office recently ruled that email addresses of people who contacted various state departments are fair game, that they must be supplied to anybody who submits an inquiry via Maine's Freedom of Access Act.

This means that any sort of advocacy group can petition the state government to provide a list of all the email addresses of people who contacted them on a given topic; and then they would be able to spam those people, to further the advocacy group's goals. BAD NEWS.

Spamhaus blogged about this; click here to read their take on why this is a bad idea. We couldn't agree more with Spamhaus's take on this issue. For our part, we sent a letter to the Maine legislature, looking to explain why we prohibit third-party lists-- any list compiled via this method would clearly NOT be a permission-based email list and we'd clamp down hard on anybody who tried to use a list like that via ExactTarget.

As Morgan Stewart and I explained in our letter, "Allowing advocacy or other groups to obtain email addresses from the Maine state government via a Freedom of Access request allows these groups to build spam lists that will cause harm to internet service providers and end consumers. The owners of those email addresses did not consent to have their email addresses shared with third parties or added to other email lists. Further, recipients of such emails will have to take an affirmative step to unsubscribe from those lists, which adds to the burden of those recipients.

"There is no known legitimate use for email address data in this context other than to compile a non-permission email list and send spam to it. Whether or not the topic of the spam is related to advocacy of something under Maine law is irrelevant; spam is still spam. It is our opinion that there are ample alternate methodologies under which advocacy or other groups may identify and contact Maine residents, without resorting to the most unwanted of email scourges; spam. Please don't enable the sending of spam to Maine residents by allowing their email addresses to be obtained from government agencies."

How about it, dear readers? When you contact somebody in government to provide feedback on an issue or apply for some sort of permit, do you think it's fair that groups can query the government for your email address and be able to add you to a list? And if you're an email marketer, do you really think this is a winning email strategy? Blasting people who didn't sign up for your emails? I sure don't.

Marketing Budgets 2010

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Morgan Stewart

Yesterday, we released a report we have been working on with Econsultancy. The full report is available for $249, or it comes as part of a membership on Econsultancy for $299. The extra fifty bucks to get access to everything they have is well worth it.

The team has been kind enough to put up a number of charts from the report on Slideshare. We have also issued our own brief discussing highlights of the project, along with a discussion of the implications for marketers in the coming year. Topics addressed in the paper include:

What is driving the migration of budgets from traditional to digital channels?
The role of ROI and 'brand reputation' in driving these shifts
The importance of staffing and training in 2010

Take a look at the slides below and grab a copy of our research brief.

Marketing Budgets 2010 Report

View more presentations from Econsultancy .com.

Marketing Budgets Continue Digital Migration, ROI Not the Main Driver

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Morgan Stewart

Today we released the results of a collaborative research project with Econsultancy looking at how marketers are allocating marketing budgets in 2010. I want to thank the team at Econsultancy. Linus Gregoriadis (@linusgreg) runs a great research team out of their London office and was a pleasure to work with on this project.

While 46% plan on increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2010, 66% are planning to increase budgets across digital channels. Running a crosstab analysis on the changes in overall budgets compared to changes in digital budgets, we found 28% of marketers are shifting at least some of their overall marketing budgets from traditional to digital channels.

A big part of the project was to understand not only how marketing budgets are being shifts, but why these shift are happening? The factors fueling this shift were a bit of a surprise. Reports that marketers are facing increased pressure to demonstrate positive ROI during the economic downturn led us to believe ROI would be the main driver fuelling a shift into digital channels. The findings of this report suggest otherwise. ROI is a factor, but there is another motivation playing a bigger role in 2010.

Check out this 2-minute video to hear what is fueling the shift toward digital channels:

Here is ExactTarget's free brief of the report.

The full report is available at http://econsultancy.com/reports/marketing-budgets-2010

ExactTarget at WebTrends Engage

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Colby Cavanaugh

Hello!

We’re here at the WebTrends Engage 2010 conference this week, located down South in the Big Easy. As a Gold sponsor of the conference, ExactTarget is excited to be present at this SOLD OUT event!

Later today, I’ll be speaking briefly at the general session on multichannel marketing and the importance of creating engagement across all channels – not just email. You’ll even see a quick demonstration on shortcode and text-in campaigns. Make sure to tune in, as you’ll have a chance to win a Starbucks gift card!

Plus, stop by Booth #7 at the conference to receive a complimentary copy of The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2009, where ExactTarget was named a LEADER in email marketing.

With all this great stuff in store, we can’t wait to see you there!

Distributed Email Marketing (Build vs. Partner series)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Dennis Hall

“It’s not a problem until it’s a problem.” A great quote from a Product Manager at a leading SaaS provider who I met on the road last week. His company had invested significant man years of development to build their own email infrastructure back in 2006.

He pointed out, “At the time there weren’t any other viable options for us so we didn’t have a choice.” As their customer base expanded, the volume of email followed in an exponential way. Their email system had shifted from a competitive advantage to a liability with issues from system failures, constant maintenance, delivery problems and limited visibility to tracking data.

More and more technology driven companies are experiencing these kinds of pains with their in-house email systems. And the question rises once again, “should we build version 2.0 or leverage a 3rd party?” Working with hundreds of technology companies over the years, I’ve heard all sides of the debate. Underneath the market research, the gap analysis and financial models, the decision ultimately rests on time, money, resources and strategy.

Next week, I'll share a list of top level requirements we've gleaned over the years from our Partners. If you are thinking of becoming an email service provider on behalf of your customers, you'll want to stay tuned!

Maybe you’ve “been there done that” or perhaps you are just beginning your journey. Either way, we are interested in your perspective so please feel free to share your comments or contact me directly anytime.

Dennis - dhall@exacttarget.com (512) 423-0876 (24 x 7!)

Goodmail Changes at Yahoo

Friday, January 29, 2010 by Al Iverson

Goodmail has just informed us that as of Monday, February 1st, how Yahoo will handle Goodmail CertifiedEmail messages delivered to Yahoo recipients will changes. Previously, Goodmail-certified messages were guaranteed inbox delivery with images and links enabled. Goodmail-certified messages will continue to be delivered, but inbox vs bulk folder delivery may vary based on unknown factors. I assume that the reputation of the sender is the primary factor there, but that is a guess on my part.

Goodmail has indicated to us that they are in discussions with Yahoo regarding the future of CertifiedEmail messages as it relates to delivery and disposition of those messages into Yahoo mailboxes.

Goodmail is currently notifying all CertifiedEmail-using clients of this change and has indicated that they will notify of any future changes.

As we learn more, we'll be sure to keep you updated.

Email Evolution 2010 Will Rock!

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Joel Book

We at ExactTarget are proud to once again be the Exclusive Title Sponsor of the DMA’s Email Evolution Conference which kicks off on Monday, February 1st in Miami at the fabulous Eden Roc Hotel. Conference organizers tell me they are expecting a record turnout, and it’s easy to see why. This program is locked and loaded! And the lineup of speakers is off the hook.

Keynoting Email Evolution 2010 is Brian Harniman, EVP of Marketing and Distribution at Kayak. Harniman will offer a visionary look at the Kayak.com customer experience today and tomorrow with a focus on the role of email in relation to other channels.

Harniman will be one of many outstanding experts on email marketing including several ExactTarget clients and partners including Renee Middleton of Taco John’s, Kip Edwardson of Scotts Miracle-Gro, Andrew Kordek of Groupon, and Mike Corak of Mighty Interactive

The New Triangle Offense of 1to1 Marketing

If you want to see two outstanding examples of how brands are successfully using Email + Social Media + Mobile to attract and retain customers, plan to attend my session on Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be joined by Renee Middleton of Taco John’s and Kip Edwardson of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.

In our session, you’ll learn how marketers are:

Using Dynamic Content to personalize product information and offers to subscriber interests
Using Social Forward to empower “brand fans” to expand message distribution to friends
Using Mobile Messaging to accelerate response to offers and attract new subscribers

Register Today and Save $200!

I think the Email Evolution Conference will be one of the BEST conferences on email marketing you will attend this year. So if you haven’t registered yet, do it now!

Call Barbara Cruz in DMA Customer Service at 212.790.1500. Or go to the EEC2010 Registration page, enter the special code BEST, and you will save $200.

See you in sunny Miami!

Design Tip of the Week: Visit our NEW Design Center!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Anna Meier

Recently, our Design Solutions team launched the Design Center on 3sixty. Within 3sixty University, the Design Center is an all-inclusive design resource to view and download our latest design whitepapers, template source codes, custom button collections and more! An extensive list of frequently asked design questions and HTML troubleshooting tips are also available, ranging in topics from preview pane dimensions to CSS support in email.

We invite you to visit, explore and gather inspiration for your next email campaign. We will continue to add and update features, so be sure to visit often and submit your feedback!

10 Tips for Successful Email Preheader Text

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Kristeen Hudson

In my previous blog post I explained what email preheader text is and why it is important. Below you will find some tips for creating your preheader text.

Tips for successful preheader text:

Call to Action – Unlike in your subject line, it’s ok (and encouraged) to use your call to action as your preheader text.

Be Positive - Use positive wording for preheader text. For example instead of saying, “Having trouble viewing this email? Click here” try “view this email with images.” The design team has a great blog post about this.

Support – Make your preheader text support you subject line. If you remember from my post Improve Your Email Subject Line, the subject line should support what is in the email. It is all one big circle.

Character Count – Keep in mind the length of the preheader text that will be displayed in the inbox (before opening). This length varies depending on the email client. To give you a character count reference, Gmail shows about 100 characters for subject line (this number varies based on screen size) and preheader text collectively (so if you have a long subject line none of your preheader text will display) and the iPhone displays about 140 characters (in the traditional vertical view) regardless of subject length. There are also some email clients that don’t display any.

Proper Placement – The marketing preheader text (aka the call to action) should be in the top left of the email. This way it will show up in the inbox. Then your more functional preheader text (such as add to address book, unsubscribe, forward to a friend) should be in the top right corner.

Short and Sweet – The pre-header text is meant to be a short summary that the subscriber can quickly glace at. If you make the pre-header text to long it defeats the purpose.

Echo – A common mistake by marketers is repeating the subject line as the preheader text. This repetitive and doesn’t add any value.

Look and Feel – Preheader text is generally smaller then body copy, but it should still be readable. Keep in mind color choices (dark text with light background or reverse is ideal) and font size (minimum of 8pt font).

Be Creative – You are competing for attention in the inbox. Write preheader text that is going to grab the attention of your subscriber and is going to make them want to read your entire email.

Test, test, test – Like everything else in email marketing, your preheader line needs to be tested. Try an A/B split with different pre-headers and test to see which emails get the most opens and conversions.

My Resolutions Have Resolutions

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Megan Sabine

As a fellow email marketer, I spent quite a bit of time in December determining what my 2010 resolutions were going to be. After finalizing my goals, I stared at my list…and then had a moment of panic. How exactly am I going to get everything done in 2010?!?!?

It was at that moment that I decided to make resolutions on how I plan to achieve my resolutions. (And yes, I’m aware that it’s a lot like having a meeting to discuss another meeting or having a plan to have a plan.)

I’ve got high expectations for the New Year and I won’t settle for anything less. Hopefully by using the sub-goals below (yup, I said sub-goals), I’ll have a completed to-do list on December 31, 2010. And in my eyes that’s reason enough to have goals for goals and meetings on meetings!

One slip up doesn’t mean I get to forget about that resolution for the rest of the year.
Like many of you, a big resolutions of mine is to test, test, and test some more with ExactTarget’s communications. Also like many of you, sometime the timeline doesn’t allow for the in-depth testing schedule I’d like. While those scenarios aren’t going to go away in 2010, the notion of “well I didn’t test anything on the last communication, so I’m not going to on this one either” will. Every time I have the opportunity to test, you can bet I will.

Set goals that are both challenging and attainable.
While I’m a big fan of setting high goals, I’m an even bigger fan of achieving my goals. Goals should be pushing you past the limits of your comfort zone and challenging you to reach the next level, but you shouldn’t be setting goals that have a zero chance of being met. If currently all of your email campaigns are a manual process, make one of your 2010 goals to automate 4 campaigns versus automating all of your campaigns. If none of your communications contain a social media aspect, resolve to have social media in your “bread and butter” communications.

Uncomplicating my complicated goals.
In the world of email marketing, it’s easy to make a scenario complicated very quickly. For example, you want your email communications to feed off of search history living in your website analytics while pulling in information from your CRM – all while conducting a multi-variant test. And the head scratching begins. Having a 360 view of how your subscriber is interacting with your company is a great 2010 resolution, but at the same time very daunting to tackle at once. It’s a lot easier to tackle one complex goal (think integrating your email with your web analytics) than attempting to tackle all of them at once. That’s why I’ll be setting quarterly goals that will keep me on track for achieving the bigger (and scarier) resolutions of 2010.

P.S. Stuck on what your 2010 resolutions should be? Our latest whitepaper, 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010, takes the guess work out of the equation.

Goodmail Goes Live With Verizon.net

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Al Iverson

Last week, Goodmail added verizon.net to its list of ISPs that support delivery of Goodmail CertifiedEmail messages. We're in the process of updating our local configuration to add support for this new domain, and it will be live on our end shortly. This grows the list of US mailbox providers supporting Goodmail to seven: AOL, Yahoo, Comcast, Cox, Mail.com, MySpace and Verizon.

What is email preheader text and why is it important?

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Kristeen Hudson

What is email preheader text?

Preheader text is the content of an email that displays before the header of an email. Normally preheader text includes a call to action phrase/link and a view as a webpage link.

Why preheader text is important:

If image blocking is enabled the preheader text may be one of the only (if not the only) things the subscriber can see.
Some mobile devices block images entirely making the preheader text even more important.
Some email clients such as Outlook 07, Gmail, and the iPhone display preheader text after the subject line in the inbox.
Generally speaking this is one of the first things that the subscriber sees before opening your email.
Preheader text provides a quick overview of your email. This helps the subscriber decide if they want to read it or not.

Stay tuned for my next blog post that will include tips for successful preheader text.

Want to know more about what is new with 1-to-1 email marketing? Check out the new whitepaper Five Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010.

Resolve to Keep Your Resolutions

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by Megan Sabine

Statistics show that of the 40% of people who make New Years resolutions, nearly 80% of those resolutions are discarded by Valentine’s Day.

80%. That’s a sobering statistic.

But it doesn’t have to be.

As marketers, we’re conditioned to setting goals, executing a plan, and measuring our results. Our New Years resolutions should follow the same pattern. And taking action is the key.

ExactTarget’s new whitepaper, 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010, outlines the plan simply and succinctly:

Be helpful, not just social.
Engage your subscribers.
Treat subscribers like friends.
Design for your subscribers.
Get back to basics.

Although the pages on the calendar continue to turn, one true thing remains—good marketing is all about positive subscriber relationships. So, read through our recommended resolutions, post them by your PC, and resolve to make 2010 the Year of the Subscriber.
You have the power to make 2010 your best year yet.

Email Design Tip of the Week: Integrating Twitter to Your Email Strategy

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by David Hoang

Twitter has revolutionized micro-blogging and ways users share content in real-time. Some believe that social media is more valuable than email, but I beg to differ, as both are powerful platforms and are different mediums of communicating. A great solution is integrating Twitter into your email campaigns to reach out to both audiences.

Why Twitter? According to Mashable, there was an estimated 18 million users on the popular micro-blogging site in 2009. Even with 60% of users quitting within the first month, there are roughly 7.2 million active users; untapped and perhaps not an email subscriber of yours. That’s a lot of people to reach out to. Twitter is a way to reach out to new users to: a) communicate with them outside the reach of email b) compel them to become an email subscriber.

Integrating Twitter to your email marketing campaigns will expand your presence and is very simple to set up. Here are a few ways to integrate Twitter in your email strategy:

Twitter integration
Twitter integration is currently an iLab feature and will be available to all ExactTarget users in the future, which will automatically post your email as a tweet to your company’s Twitter account. This is a simple and effective way to broadcast your message further; with the opportunity for your followers to re-tweet and share your email message.

Add social forwarding on your emails
The ExactTarget application provides a simple way to spread your email message beyond your lists with our social forward feature. Social forward will include buttons in your email message (Twitter is included as a ShareThis feature) which easily allows your subscribers to share your message. You will reach out to users who are not your subscribers; opportunity for new relationships.

Start a #hashtag
It’s amazing what people will do if you simply ask them. If you’re trying to reach out to your audience on Twitter, consider asking them to be an extension of your broadcast by starting a hashtag. For example, if Northern Trail Outfitters wanted to start a hashtag on Twitter, they could send an email asking subscribers to tweet with the hashtag “#NTO.” This begins a searchable discussion of content tagged “NTO.”

For a great example, check out Style Campaign’s blog post on how HBO’s True Blood used Twitter in their emails. This is a great way to utilize email to leverage your Twitter campaign.

Post content on your company Twitter account
Your presence matters. Regardless of the size of your company, start a Twitter account and open dialogue with the Twitterverse. Consider posting links, re-tweeting useful content and speaking with your followers. Set up a search and see what people are saying about your company.

Link to your Twitter account on every email
Again, your presence matters. Put a link to your Twitter account on the footer of your email messages; could be a button or simple link. Let people know you are there.

I want to conclude with a few reasons to use email in your marketing campaign, that doesn’t quite work on Twitter:

Sometimes you just need more than 140 characters.
HTML email will allow you to send your message to your subscriber’s inbox.
Your Twitter posts can get lost in the timeline and be bumped out of the real-time stream.

When integrating Twitter into your email strategy, think about the differences between the two platforms, the people on them, then ways you can converge the two together.

For great insights on the rise of social media and its relation to email, check out our whitepaper, Expanding the reach of email with social networks.

Follow us on Twitter at @ExactTarget and @ETDesign.

Happy Tweeting!

Design Tip of the Week: Email + Video: Take 2: Connections ’09 Panel Recap, Part 2 (of 3)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Chris Studabaker

Last post, I discussed current support and delivery methods for email + video. This time we're going to focus on some of the benefits and concerns and finish with a few closing thoughts. As I mentioned last time, please note that this blog centers on the technological considerations around email + video—the strategy around sending video in email (or not) is another discussion!

Benefits of email + video

Strong emotional appeal
Highly engaging
Personal, even user-generated content

Video offers incredible emotional appeal and a personal, highly engaging form of communication. Online video and social media offer the additional bonus of user-generated content, an incredibly effective tool for brand recognition and even advertising when used properly. Volumes have been written on this subject, and I recommend further reading on video as an advertising medium.

Concerns regarding email + video

Development cost and time
File size and bandwidth
Frame rate inconsistencies
Deliverability

Video use does come with some concerns, the foremost being that video represents a considerable development cost and time investment. Integrating video with email requires first having the video! Creating video content then requires the same commitment to brand standards and quality that comprises the rest of your brand experience.

Moving to technical issues, browsers interpret animated .gif frame rates differently, so it's important to test and ensure your .gif appears as desired in all browsers. File sizes and bandwidth are also a concern. A typical HTML email message may be no more than 150KB, including images, but even a simple animated .gif can double the total file size. To carry this further, sending a 1 MB video to one million subscribers can demand significant resources, and adding send frequency to the equation means we must be cognizant of the effect video can have on web hosting and bandwidth. The lack of video standards also raises concerns with deliverability. ISPs and email clients have different standards when determining spam/junk/trash messages, and the lack of generally accepted practices makes testing even more important.

These concerns can certainly be addressed successfully, but these points show it's important to remember that adding video to an email program represents far more than simply a new content block to plan.

Conclusion

Remember the message's primary goal
Consider video in content hierarchy
Know your audience
Subscriber expectations

In the end, we land on a mindset you're very familiar with: Subscribers Rule! Whether it's text headlines or Hollywood-style full motion video, know your subscribers and provide relevant content. Crafting engaging calls to action, nurturing a subscriber-centric content strategy, and establishing strong subscriber relationships are still primary concerns to email marketers, and video is a powerful new tool we can begin to use in accomplishing those goals.

You can check out Part 1 of this series for info on current support and delivery methods for email + video. Part 3 will share some interesting customer experiences and discuss ExactTarget's animated and static .gif testing using Connections '09 emails.

See You in Miami for Email Summit ’10!

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Joel Book

I’m really looking forward to next week’s MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit, and hope to see many of you in Miami for this terrific event. If you haven’t checked out the lineup of speakers for Email Summit ‘10, take a look. It’s loaded!

Keynoting Email Summit ‘10 will be Joseph Jaffe, bestselling author of "Join the Conversation" and "Life After the 30-Second Spot."

Joseph keynoted ExactTarget’s Connections 2008 conference and is regarded as one of the brightest minds and visionaries in interactive marketing.

In his presentation titled, "Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones"- Email's New Critical Role,” Jaffe will discuss the expanding role of email to establish powerful relationships with customer evangelists, and show how to equip this base with the necessary tools, techniques and incentives to spread word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals to social networks, trusted peers and communities.

All Email Summit Attendees will Get Joseph’s New Book

As a special bonus, ExactTarget has arranged for each attendee of Email Summit ’10 to receive a copy of Joseph Jaffe’s new book “Flip the Funnel.”

And if you would like to meet Joseph in person and have him sign your copy of “Flip the Funnel,” just stop by the ExactTarget exhibit following his keynote.

Haven’t Registered Yet?

The Email Summit is one of the best conferences on email marketing you will attend this year. So if you haven’t registered yet, give this some serious thought. You can register at the Email Summit ’10 website or by calling toll free 877-895-1717.

Haiti Relief Text Campaign from Red Cross Emphasizes Convenience and Immediacy of SMS

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Amanda Berkey

According to the Mashable blog, by 5:30pm EST Jan 14, only two days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Red Cross has raised an impressive $5 million dollars from their Text campaign. If you were on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites this week, you may have seen the outcries to donate $10 by texting "Haiti" to the shortcode 90999. If you do the quick math, that's 500,000 mobile subscribers that have used text messaging to donate to the Haitian relief efforts led by the Red Cross. The blog post also shows an SMS message flow explaining how easy it is for a mobile subscriber to text in "Haiti" and then "Yes" to confirm their donation. In two short SMS messages, a single person is able to contribute to the larger cause from anywhere!

As the product marketing manager for the SMS portfolio at ExactTarget, I'm very impressed, but not surprised by the results of this SMS campaign. When I meet with customers who are strategizing about their 1 to 1 Marketing campaigns that include email, SMS, web, and social media, we discuss the reasons that SMS messaging to communicate with your subscribers are effective.

We are in an era when people are more likely to have a mobile phone rather than a traditional land line. And mobile phones are something that people do not leave home without. Whether you have a smart phone or standard mobile phone, SMS text plans is now considered basic communication. How many times have you ditched leaving a person you were calling a voicemail to send them a simple text message? Many people outside of the business world forgo the expensive data plans to receive email and web from their phone, but gladly pay for their SMS messaging plans.

Including text messaging in your 1 to 1 marketing strategy is a powerful way to reach your audience can have huge rewards:

SMS messaging is immediate and direct: by nature of the US standard of 160 characters, text messages are short and concise. They reach the person that needs the quick information. And responding to or reading a text message takes only seconds and it doesn't require you to shift your focus too much. You can even do it in a meeting! *Wink*
Text messaging campaigns are always available when a person is interested: savvy marketers know that it takes massive effort to get a prospect engaged in their brand. Having a text campaign that a mobile subscriber can respond to a call-to-action at the emotional high of the interest, can be the difference if they ever participate or not. Let's face it, when they get back to their computer, even a geniunely interested person is likely to forget that they wanted to sign up for your program.
SMS can augment email marketing efforts: the best example of this approach is from our customer, Pier 1 Imports, who follows up with email drip marketing from new subscribers they captured from their text sweepstakes at college bookstores. Leveraging both email and text messaging for marketing campaigns can empower you to send relevant information using both messaging channels

The recent example of a non-profit organization raising donations and enabling the general public to act is proof that SMS messaging when combined with social media and email can have incredible impact and rewards. For more thoughts about getting started with Text Messaging check out our recent webinar.

Email Design Tip of the Week: Email + Video: Take 2: Connections ’09 Panel Recap, Part 1 (of 3)

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Chris Studabaker

Video in email is one of the most intriguing hot topics regarding email's technological growth and audience engagement capacity. Current support for the combined use of these mediums is low, but audience interest and advertiser investment in online video—and this type of media convergence—continues to grow. This blog recaps the major points I discussed in the "Email + Video: Take 2" panel at Connections '09. Please note that this blog centers on the technological considerations around email + video—the strategy around sending video in email (or not) is another discussion!

Online video
Online video, itself, is young—it only began to take root in 2005—but it's quickly become an integral part of our online lives. Discussed in conjunction with email, it's imperative to note that online video has already seen rough standards emerge (formats such as .mpg, .mov, .wmv, and .avi). Email, unfortunately, continues its history of little to no standards, and the emergence of video in email has created a new set of compatibility issues.

Current support for video in email
Today, there's a near complete lack of support for video across the major email clients. Sporadic support exists for some formats but the animated .gif is the only format reliably supported. Gif is a standard web image format and supports animation, though it's limited to 256 colors, does not support sound, and inconsistent frame rates are possible. It's hardly a true video format—which has given rise to some innovative, albeit workaround, solutions—but animated .gif images remain the best all-around option for including motion graphics in email.

There are also a few companies in the marketplace offering paid solutions to include video in email. These companies offer two main services: first, the technology to send video; and second, relationships with consumer email services (such as AOL and others) to allow the successful receipt of that video. However, the list of ISPs supporting these services is limited and should be researched. Lastly, HTML5 is around the corner and there are indications that it might open more options for including video in email.

Delivery methods

Streaming – video downloaded as it plays
Linking – click through to externally hosted video
Embedding – video data included in sent message

To avoid confusion, it's important to set a few definitions regarding the three methods of video delivery. Streaming video refers to a hosted video beginning to play as soon as enough data has loaded, and then continuing to load as it plays (as on YouTube, for example). Ultimately, this is the experience that marketers hope to deliver with video in email. However, the current standard practice is to use a static image with a "play" button, linking to a page on which subscribers can watch the externally hosted video—your website, a landing page, even your company's YouTube channel. Linking to video poses no technical challenges and will work in all browsers and email clients.

Embedding is occasionally mentioned and refers to actually inserting the video file or video code into the email itself, almost like attaching the video to the email. This is a workaround, represents a negative user experience in many ways, and is not recommended.

Part 2 of this topic will contain a look at benefits & concerns of email + video and give a few concluding thoughts. Part 3 will share some interesting customer experiences and discuss ExactTarget's animated and static .gif testing using Connections '09 emails.