ReturnPath contacted us today (and posted to their blog) to tell us and the world that Yahoo has agreed to automatically enable links and images for senders on the ReturnPath Certified whitelist (formerly known as Sender Score Certified). From the context of the emailed announcement, I believe that ReturnPath will be contacting SSC-whitelisted entities to work with them to ensure that the proper information is submitted to Yahoo to ensure that things work smoothly in this regard. For more information, view Alex Rubin's blog post on the topic.
Remember the good ‘ol college days? The days where you’d sign up for anything free because you never quite had enough money for food or books. Credit card companies would roam around campus flaunting their free t-shirts with a tempting, “All you have to do is sign up for your very own credit card and this t-shirt can be yours.” And of course, many freshmen fell for it. It was a free t-shirt, after all.Probably not the brightest idea to ruin your credit over a free t-shirt. But, let me tell you about a really cool promotion involving, yes, free stuff and college students. Except this one is much smarter – for all parties involved.
In an effort to reach a younger demographic, Pier 1 Imports partnered with Barnes & Noble to run an SMS sweepstakes. Really, the idea is genius – partnering with a bookstore and using SMS to reach college students. Seriously, if you can name one college kid who isn’t glued to their cell phone, you win!
Using ExactTarget’s mobile functionality, Pier 1 placed in-store mobile calls-to-action next to the prize – a Papasan chair – in 100 Barnes & Noble bookstores near college campuses. Consumers who text in receive a text message, automatically triggered from ExactTarget, confirming their registration in the sweepstakes and asking them to opt-in to receive promotional emails from Pier 1 Imports.
And the best part is – the campaign is keyword-specific, with a unique keyword for each store, so Pier 1 can identify the exact store each consumer texts in from.
This is truly one scenario where everybody wins. One lucky college kid takes home a Papasan chair (perfect for a dorm room) and Pier 1 collects email newsletter sign-ups and reaches the younger demographic they were after.
It’s a true example of Email + Mobile bliss. Visit 3sixty for even more resources to get the most from our Interactive Marketing Platform.
Let’s face it: the fun in getting – or winning – free stuff never goes away. Even as you get older.
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend “Designing For Your Subscribers: Tips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI” last week. We had an excellent turnout and plenty of great questions. If you weren’t able to attend the session, don’t worry! You can watch a recording of the one-hour webinar on 3sixty.
Do you have data on email clients that consumer subscribers tend to use?
While data is available, your mileage may vary. Each audience will be different, and you may see dramatically different segments in your list or even between lists, as we saw in the webinar. Fingerprint publishes an aggregate of the data collected from marketers utilizing their service. MailboxIQ provides an in-depth view of email client usage, where emails are being read, and more. Even a simple List Demographics report in ExactTarget can help you understand which email clients your subscribers might be using.
What are the default pixel dimensions for common preview panes?
Over half of subscribers use a preview pane in their email client. We measured each of the default preview pane setups on Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Mail using a 1024x768 monitor resolution. Read the blog post here.
Do you also have data on monitor resolutions in order to determine which portion of an email might be “above the fold”?
Similar to preview pane dimensions, the dimensions for the area above the fold may vary widely since individual users can adjust the size of their preview pane and their inbox in general. Keep in mind that your users may not be viewing your email in an inbox maximized to full screen resolution. w3schools.com publishes display resolution trend information (as do many other sites), but it’s important to remember this data comes from their own website traffic. Just as with email clients, your own website’s analytics data may reveal more pertinent information about your subscribers’ screen settings.
Browser Size by Google Labs is a great tool for indentifying what portion of your email might be “below the fold” in different monitor resolutions. Keep in mind the following caveats: you must have a web-hosted version of your email (you need a URL to paste in) and the email should be left-aligned for best results.
What should be the ideal width of an email in pixels?
We continue to recommend 600px wide as a guideline. We’ve seen success with narrower and wider variations. Again, your results may vary. Generally speaking, we wouldn’t recommend going much wider than 750px.
Where did the "50% of users have images turned off" metric come from?
Many popular email clients—including Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail—disable images by default, forcing the subscriber to choose to turn images on. As we saw in our discussion of email client usage, these email clients can account for 70+% on many lists. It’s important to note that images off is the default for these email clients.
When designing using ExactTarget templates, how can you edit the preheader teaser text?
Our Client Success Center would be happy to assist you. You may reach the CSC by creating a case in BackOffice, sending an email to help@exacttarget.com or calling 866-558-9823.
How do I find out what the "web safe" fonts are?
This site has a great list of web-safe fonts and matches font equivalents between a Windows and Mac environment.
Is there any way to control what content is seen on a mobile phone using CSS? How should I create a mobile friendly version?
There are ways for a website to detect a mobile device and automatically serve up appropriate content, but email currently requires a manual approach. If you’re seeing a significant number of subscribers viewing your emails on a mobile device, we’d recommend creating a simple mobile HTML version and linking to it in the upper left of your standard HTML email. This version would include web safe fonts with minor formatting (color, bold, italics), short teaser text linking to full content, and little more than a simple image (such as a logo) at the top. This creates a great foundation for a mobile-friendly program, which can certainly grow – for example, eventually you might allow subscribers to choose “mobile preferred” and send them a mobile specific email directly.
Thanks again for attending and for all the great questions!
Do you have data on email clients that consumer subscribers tend to use?
While data is available, your mileage may vary. Each audience will be different, and you may see dramatically different segments in your list or even between lists, as we saw in the webinar. Fingerprint publishes an aggregate of the data collected from marketers utilizing their service. MailboxIQ provides an in-depth view of email client usage, where emails are being read, and more. Even a simple List Demographics report in ExactTarget can help you understand which email clients your subscribers might be using.
What are the default pixel dimensions for common preview panes?
Over half of subscribers use a preview pane in their email client. We measured each of the default preview pane setups on Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Mail using a 1024x768 monitor resolution. Read the blog post here.
Do you also have data on monitor resolutions in order to determine which portion of an email might be “above the fold”?
Similar to preview pane dimensions, the dimensions for the area above the fold may vary widely since individual users can adjust the size of their preview pane and their inbox in general. Keep in mind that your users may not be viewing your email in an inbox maximized to full screen resolution. w3schools.com publishes display resolution trend information (as do many other sites), but it’s important to remember this data comes from their own website traffic. Just as with email clients, your own website’s analytics data may reveal more pertinent information about your subscribers’ screen settings.
Browser Size by Google Labs is a great tool for indentifying what portion of your email might be “below the fold” in different monitor resolutions. Keep in mind the following caveats: you must have a web-hosted version of your email (you need a URL to paste in) and the email should be left-aligned for best results.
What should be the ideal width of an email in pixels?
We continue to recommend 600px wide as a guideline. We’ve seen success with narrower and wider variations. Again, your results may vary. Generally speaking, we wouldn’t recommend going much wider than 750px.
Where did the "50% of users have images turned off" metric come from?
Many popular email clients—including Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail—disable images by default, forcing the subscriber to choose to turn images on. As we saw in our discussion of email client usage, these email clients can account for 70+% on many lists. It’s important to note that images off is the default for these email clients.
When designing using ExactTarget templates, how can you edit the preheader teaser text?
Our Client Success Center would be happy to assist you. You may reach the CSC by creating a case in BackOffice, sending an email to help@exacttarget.com or calling 866-558-9823.
How do I find out what the "web safe" fonts are?
This site has a great list of web-safe fonts and matches font equivalents between a Windows and Mac environment.
Is there any way to control what content is seen on a mobile phone using CSS? How should I create a mobile friendly version?
There are ways for a website to detect a mobile device and automatically serve up appropriate content, but email currently requires a manual approach. If you’re seeing a significant number of subscribers viewing your emails on a mobile device, we’d recommend creating a simple mobile HTML version and linking to it in the upper left of your standard HTML email. This version would include web safe fonts with minor formatting (color, bold, italics), short teaser text linking to full content, and little more than a simple image (such as a logo) at the top. This creates a great foundation for a mobile-friendly program, which can certainly grow – for example, eventually you might allow subscribers to choose “mobile preferred” and send them a mobile specific email directly.
Thanks again for attending and for all the great questions!
With the holiday rush behind us and the New Year in full swing, you might find yourself with a bit of extra time on your hands (no?!). You’ve finally made neat things called “rules” in your inbox to reduce clutter, and straightened your pencil cup, but something seems to be missing… ah yes, the feeling of accomplishment. This might be a good time to rethink your team’s quality assurance process. You want your client’s email campaigns to be successful, and in doing so, you may end up wearing a few extra hats along the way – including QA. Here are a few tips using Google docs to help facilitate a speedy yet thorough QA process.
Sign up for a free Google account (if you don’t already have one) to access the many tools Google has to offer. A handy feature (found within Google Documents) is the ability to create forms and spreadsheets.
My team and I have created several spreadsheet checklists for our QA process, but found it laborious to manually enter in content. By incorporating forms, you can enter in the information that you are checking (as you’re checking it), submit the form, and it will automatically populate in the spreadsheet. The end result will look something like the image below. It’s handy to use and also easy to hand off to anyone new to the project.
Once you’ve submitted the form, you can quickly review your spreadsheet to make sure everything was filled out properly.
This simple QA process has increased our efficiency and accuracy exponentially. Not only are we preventing error, we also have documented our efforts to eliminate them. It may also serve as great reference material to look back on when ramping up new campaigns or brands.
Please check out our blog about more productivity tips and software here!
Sign up for a free Google account (if you don’t already have one) to access the many tools Google has to offer. A handy feature (found within Google Documents) is the ability to create forms and spreadsheets.
My team and I have created several spreadsheet checklists for our QA process, but found it laborious to manually enter in content. By incorporating forms, you can enter in the information that you are checking (as you’re checking it), submit the form, and it will automatically populate in the spreadsheet. The end result will look something like the image below. It’s handy to use and also easy to hand off to anyone new to the project.
Once you’ve submitted the form, you can quickly review your spreadsheet to make sure everything was filled out properly.
This simple QA process has increased our efficiency and accuracy exponentially. Not only are we preventing error, we also have documented our efforts to eliminate them. It may also serve as great reference material to look back on when ramping up new campaigns or brands.
Please check out our blog about more productivity tips and software here!
In email marketing it's all about Channel Preferences! So did you know there are three different ways to get ExactTarget Customer Service from our Client Success Center:
3Sixty Back Office
My favorite! If you are a member of 3sixty, you can click the Back Office Button and Sumbit a Case, Request an Update on a Case and also monitor case comments.
Email to Case
Send an email to help@exacttarget.com and a case will be automatically created in our case management system. You will get an email reply identifying your case number.
Good Old Fashioned Phone Call
Lastly, I've found alot of the answers I need in 3sixty have already been asked (and answered!) but customers and ExactTarget employees. Make sure to check out 3sixty Community!
3Sixty Back Office
My favorite! If you are a member of 3sixty, you can click the Back Office Button and Sumbit a Case, Request an Update on a Case and also monitor case comments.
Email to Case
Send an email to help@exacttarget.com and a case will be automatically created in our case management system. You will get an email reply identifying your case number.
Good Old Fashioned Phone Call
- US Customers can call 866-558-9823
- UK Customers can call +44 (0) 808 101 7081
- All other International Customers can call +44 (0) 207 291 8550
Lastly, I've found alot of the answers I need in 3sixty have already been asked (and answered!) but customers and ExactTarget employees. Make sure to check out 3sixty Community!
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.
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.
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.
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!
Way back in late 2007, I mentioned a change at Earthlink regarding bouncing addresses and how they measure subscriber inactivity. Like a lot of other ISPs nowadays, they shut off mailboxes after a period of inactivity. In this case, 90 days.
This week, a commenter asked, “How do you reactivate an account?”
If you're an Earthlink user, and you're wondering how to re-activate your mailbox, I'm not sure. I assume you would just log into it like normal, and that would re-enable it. But, I'm not 100% sure about that; you should contact Earthlink support for assistance.
If you mean that you're a list manager and you're wondering how you re-enable that address so that you can send mail to it again … you cannot. This isn't a situation you can impact. Whether or not this subscriber's address becomes valid again is up to the ISP and/or up to the end user. (See my note above to any end user wondering about this.) The chances of an address re-activating is probably pretty slim; if somebody hasn't checked their email in months, they've probably moved on to greener pastures (i.e., they've changed email addresses).
What you can do is decide if you want to keep emailing those people. It's going to be a lot better for your sending reputation if you stop mailing users whose addresses are no longer valid. The ET system handles this automatically.
It's a bit similar to engagement, in that, if your contact or campaign strategy involves weeding out recipients who are no longer responsive to your mailings, then you're already way ahead of the game. Weeding people out of your list who never read your emails (and whose addresses are invalid) means you're much more likely to enjoy successful inbox delivery.
This week, a commenter asked, “How do you reactivate an account?”
If you're an Earthlink user, and you're wondering how to re-activate your mailbox, I'm not sure. I assume you would just log into it like normal, and that would re-enable it. But, I'm not 100% sure about that; you should contact Earthlink support for assistance.
If you mean that you're a list manager and you're wondering how you re-enable that address so that you can send mail to it again … you cannot. This isn't a situation you can impact. Whether or not this subscriber's address becomes valid again is up to the ISP and/or up to the end user. (See my note above to any end user wondering about this.) The chances of an address re-activating is probably pretty slim; if somebody hasn't checked their email in months, they've probably moved on to greener pastures (i.e., they've changed email addresses).
What you can do is decide if you want to keep emailing those people. It's going to be a lot better for your sending reputation if you stop mailing users whose addresses are no longer valid. The ET system handles this automatically.
It's a bit similar to engagement, in that, if your contact or campaign strategy involves weeding out recipients who are no longer responsive to your mailings, then you're already way ahead of the game. Weeding people out of your list who never read your emails (and whose addresses are invalid) means you're much more likely to enjoy successful inbox delivery.
Canadian Internet law blogger and expert Michael Geist writes: "Reports this morning indicate that the government plans to prorogue Parliament, effectively shutting it down until March. [...] All bills that have not received royal assent die and must be restarted from the beginning when a new Parliament begins." This includes bill C-27 covering anti-spam and electronic commerce. "While the government can try to move bills with broad support quickly back through the process [...], the delays are significant."
That's all for now folks. We'll see what develops in 2010.
That's all for now folks. We'll see what develops in 2010.
Somebody asked me today if we support Gmail's unsubscribe functionality (yes), so I thought it would be good to mention it here again.
Since this summer (2009), Gmail has offered an option on some email, where, if you click the "this is spam" button, the Gmail system will ask you, "Would you like to unsubscribe?" If you click yes, an unsubscribe request is sent back to the sender. In the case of ET-served emails, yes, ExactTarget handles this unsubscribe request automatically and will unsubscribe that recipient.
For more on Gmail's unsubscribe process, check out this August, 2009 Email Experience Council (EEC) article by my boss, Chip House, and this July, 2009 blog post by Laura Atkins of Word to the Wise.
Note that we can't MAKE the unsubscribe option appear on your email messages in Gmail - Gmail chooses whether or not to make this option available in response to specific email sent and whom it was sent by. It looks to me as though they tie it to sender reputation - meaning, if you're a good, clean sender, this functionality is more likely to appear.
Since this summer (2009), Gmail has offered an option on some email, where, if you click the "this is spam" button, the Gmail system will ask you, "Would you like to unsubscribe?" If you click yes, an unsubscribe request is sent back to the sender. In the case of ET-served emails, yes, ExactTarget handles this unsubscribe request automatically and will unsubscribe that recipient.
For more on Gmail's unsubscribe process, check out this August, 2009 Email Experience Council (EEC) article by my boss, Chip House, and this July, 2009 blog post by Laura Atkins of Word to the Wise.
Note that we can't MAKE the unsubscribe option appear on your email messages in Gmail - Gmail chooses whether or not to make this option available in response to specific email sent and whom it was sent by. It looks to me as though they tie it to sender reputation - meaning, if you're a good, clean sender, this functionality is more likely to appear.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If you sell through sales agents or dealers, one of the smartest things you can do to boost email response is to personalize the email by sending it “on behalf” of the customer’s sales rep or account manager.Putting the agent’s picture and contact information on the email will boost response rates by a factor of 15-20%. The reason? No matter how advanced and how sophisticated we get at using technology to improve sales and marketing, one fact remains constant: People by from People.
And you can automate the entire process using “dynamic content” technology to personalize the content of every email you send based on what is relevant to each customer.
Personalized Email Works for GLS Companies
GLS Companies sends personalized email on behalf of each sales agent to people they meet at trade shows. The Integrated Communication Solutions (SM) company also uses personalized email to nurture leads. Jim Benedict, Marketing Director for GLS, reports that this tactic is being used effectively to shorten the sales cycle.
Expedia Leverages Personalization
As reported in the December 2nd issue of MarketingSherpa, Expedia CruiseShipCenters, a brick-and-click cruise agency has more than 2,500 cruise consultants who operate independently or from franchised locations across North America. The cruise agency uses an automated, centralized email and website system that creates personalized communications for its 2,500 sales agents. Putting an agent’s face and name on correspondence has lifted clickthroughs 23%. You can read the entire article online at no charge until December 12th.
I’m really excited about the upcoming 2009 NCDM conference which kicks off Monday, December 7th in Las Vegas.Attendance is up 20% over last year and the lineup of sessions and speakers is outstanding!
This year, the conference programming committee placed special emphasis on inviting speakers who are true practitioners of database marketing, and will share case studies of how they are using data and technology to sell and serve customers more effectively and efficiently.
For complete session details, download the NCDM 2009 conference brochure.
This year’s NCDM conference will feature several ExactTarget clients and partners.
- Sean Mattson of Hitachi Data Systems will team with me to present a fantastic B-to-B marketing case study that describes how Hitachi uses email as the backbone of a global one-to-one marketing strategy that has made Hitachi Data Systems a world leader in data storage technology.
- Dan Heimbrock of HyperDrive Interactive will discuss how Dreamfields Pasta has built a powerful and influential brand fan community of more than 400,000 consumers by using email marketing, social media, and word-of-mouth marketing to drive brand recognition and dramatically accelerate sales.
- Augie MacCurrach of Customer Portfolios and Michael Enright of online gaming company, WorldWinner, will describe how WorldWinner uses customer playing behavior data to execute automated email programs that deliver personalized offers that keep players highly engaged.
If you are still on the fence about attending, I urge you to take advantage of a special offer which will save you $100 over the onsite price when you register in Las Vegas. You can also take advantage of this offer by registering online at http://bit.ly/3bq2aP. To redeem this offer, use code: ONSM when you register online.
I hope to see you in Las Vegas for NCDM 2009, which promises to be one of the top conferences on tactics and techniques for data-drives sales and marketing.
Hot off the press over at AOL's Postmaster Blog, Christine highlights recent changes to AOL's enhanced whitelist. What changed? Engagement. It sounds as though they're now using it as a metric when determining who qualifies for AOL's EWL (enhanced whitelist), the bit of magic that allows your images and links to work automatically in the AOL inbox.
For good guys, I don't know that this is much of a change. Engagement has long mattered at top ISPs, including AOL. Though, it seems to me that perhaps AOL is closing a loophole -- eliminating a method for gaming one of their whitelisting mechanisms. Having a good reputation was already important, but this adds yet another data point into that specific EWL reputation calculation, helping AOL more accurately identify mail that their users care about and want to receive.
It's yet another data point that recipient engagement matters! How people interact with your email messages, and whether or not they interact with your email messages, is more important than ever before.
For good guys, I don't know that this is much of a change. Engagement has long mattered at top ISPs, including AOL. Though, it seems to me that perhaps AOL is closing a loophole -- eliminating a method for gaming one of their whitelisting mechanisms. Having a good reputation was already important, but this adds yet another data point into that specific EWL reputation calculation, helping AOL more accurately identify mail that their users care about and want to receive.
It's yet another data point that recipient engagement matters! How people interact with your email messages, and whether or not they interact with your email messages, is more important than ever before.
Thinking about using mobile coupons? If you are, here are 5 things you absolutely must know about planning and managing a successful mobile coupon strategy.1. Make the Offer Relevant to the Consumer. “Opt-in mobile marketing has an enormous potential if done responsibly and is specifically focused on the stores/restaurants that matter to each consumer,” said Alistair Goodman CEO of 1020 Placecast.
A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive of more than 2,000 adults measured cell phone owner preference levels and receptivity for opt-in mobile marketing messages from brick-and-mortar businesses. The study revealed that 51% of cell phone-owning men ages 18-34, and 34% of women in the same age group were interested in receiving opt-in shopping alerts on their cell phones.
The ability to deliver mobile coupons that “personalize offers” to the profile, needs or purchase history of the consumer is a huge advantage for marketers because it drives traffic to stores. But like all things in database marketing, the key is having the right customer data and the right mobile marketing technology to deliver relevant and timely communications.
2. Integrate “Front End” and “Back End” Systems. One of the cardinal sins (and death traps) of any direct marketing campaign is not having your back-end systems and processes in place to properly redeem coupons and capture customer data.
Integrating your “front-end” POS coupon scanning technology with your “back-end” marketing database, CRM, call center, and customer communications software -- such as email -- is an absolute must.
One company on the leading edge of systems integration is Cellfire, a San Jose based mobile couponing service provider. Cellfire has begun matching store loyalty card numbers with mobile phone applications in an effort to solve some of the back- and front-end IT integration problems, according to August Trometer, co creator at Yowza, which provides location-based coupons for the iPhone.
Cellfire’s software application lets customers scan mobile coupons directly from their phones at checkout. The company is currently working with Kroger in Dallas, as well as JCPenney in the Houston area.
Starbucks has also announced that it has begun using Cellfire’s application to test a mobile payment option that lets people buy products by swiping an on-screen barcode that is scanned similar to a plastic Starbucks Card. Sixteen West Coast Starbucks stores are participating in the test.
3. Use Smart POS Technology. Today’s smart phones are wonderful tools for delivering mobile coupons to consumers. But everything can fall apart if your POS technology cannot read the barcode and accept the coupon.
JCPenney has begun testing a new system from Cellfire at Houston area stores that lets customers scan mobile coupons directly from their phones at checkout.
The program, launched in late September at 16 JCPenney locations, is enabled through new imaging scanners installed at registers that can read the "2D" barcode coupons and save sales clerks from having to manually enter promotional codes for coupons.
"These mobile coupons are the ultimate in customer convenience, because there's no need to clip or carry around a printed coupon, and they can be instantly scanned from a cell phone. It's another way we're innovating to enhance the customer's shopping experience," said Mike Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for JCPenney, in a statement.
4. Use Bar-coded Coupons to Track Customer Purchase Data. Using bar-coded coupons to capture the identity of the customer making the purchase, the promotional code, and the amount of the transaction is smart marketing. And we are about to see an explosion in the use of bar-coded coupons in the US.
Barcodes save time and eliminate errors in data entry. And for marketers focused on using customer purchase data to model customer product preferences and predict future product interests, bar coded coupons provide an ideal method for capturing the data needed for predictive modeling and offer targeting.
The key to using bar-coded mobile coupons is to use standard, familiar SMS, MMS and WAP technologies to deliver a scanable bar-coded message to consumers’ mobile phones.
Water Wheel Car Wash in California, uses mobile coupon technology from OzNet Systems, is to provide mobile coupons for their customers. The company sends bar-coded coupons to their customer’s mobile phones eliminating the need for customers to print out paper coupons therefore reducing waste. To get their mobile coupon, all customers have to do is Text WATERWHEEL to 84045. Customers can choose which product and coupon they desire from any location.
“We are a small business and we have to be conservative about our marketing dollars. As a small business you always have to be looking for something different,” says second generation Water Wheel Car Wash Owner, Alex Naber.
Users of the system can also pull an electronic report showing exactly how effective their marketing campaign has been.
5. Use Mobile Email Rendering Software. According to Len Shneyder of Pivotal Veracity, "The mobile smart phone market is evolving at a rapid tempo. Because the cost of smart phones, the most robust and powerful of the mobile market, is falling almost as quickly as the companies are innovating, the rate of adoption is skyrocketing. More powerful handsets mean more people accessing email on their mobile devices. More varied devices means there are more challenges for email marketers than ever to getting email to render correctly. "
For mobile coupon campaigns to be successful, you must have the right software to ensure your coupon offer and barcode appear the same regardless of whether the consumer is receiving the mobile coupon on smart phones from Blackberry, iPhone, or Palm.
What should you do? Check out eDesign Optimizer and the Design Guide from Pivotal Veracity. These design tools and guidelines will enable you to verify that your links and images work, validate your code, and visually ensure that your mobile email and coupons appear the same regardless of the mobile phone your customer uses.
The Takeaway
Jordan Cohen from Pivotal Veracity says it best, "What we are witnessing in the mobile space is unprecedented. Having the web in the palm of your hand is in demand like no other technology in human history, and it is fueling the biggest revolution in computing in at least 15 years. I've said it before, and now will say it again: The time to adopt a mobile email marketing strategy is now. Blink one or two more times and your competitors might just leave you in the dust."
If you're wondering if it's OK to require that recipients must log into your website before they can unsubscribe from your emails, the answer to that is no-- it's prohibited under US Federal law.
The FTC explicitly clarified this in the May 2008 CAN-SPAM Rule Update. It's on page 104, near the bottom.
Here's what it says:
Section 316.5 Prohibition on charging a fee or imposing other requirements on recipients who wish to opt out. Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page, in order to: (a) Use a return electronic mail address or other Internet-based mechanism, required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3), to submit a request not to receive future commercial electronic mail messages from a sender; or (b) Have such a request honored as required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3)(B) and (a)(4).
What does that mean? Read carefully: Senders are not allowed to require recipients to "provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences." That means you can't require them to login to your website before continuing on to a preference center or other page. The only thing a recipient has to give you is their email address, and the opt-out preference. (i.e. do you want to opt-out from all messages, or would you like to opt-out only from certain specific lists.) The law prohibits any requirement that the recipient "take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page" when unsubscribing -- meaning it's not OK for it to take five clicks for somebody to unsubscribe. Interact with one page means the unsubscribe link takes them to a web page, where they are either unsubscribed automatically, or push some button on that web page to complete the unsubscribe process. (That would be interacting with that single web page.)
For more information on CAN-SPAM, visit our CAN-SPAM Information Center at http://canspam.etdeliverability.com/
The FTC explicitly clarified this in the May 2008 CAN-SPAM Rule Update. It's on page 104, near the bottom.
Here's what it says:
Section 316.5 Prohibition on charging a fee or imposing other requirements on recipients who wish to opt out. Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page, in order to: (a) Use a return electronic mail address or other Internet-based mechanism, required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3), to submit a request not to receive future commercial electronic mail messages from a sender; or (b) Have such a request honored as required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3)(B) and (a)(4).
What does that mean? Read carefully: Senders are not allowed to require recipients to "provide any information other than the recipient's electronic mail address and opt-out preferences." That means you can't require them to login to your website before continuing on to a preference center or other page. The only thing a recipient has to give you is their email address, and the opt-out preference. (i.e. do you want to opt-out from all messages, or would you like to opt-out only from certain specific lists.) The law prohibits any requirement that the recipient "take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page" when unsubscribing -- meaning it's not OK for it to take five clicks for somebody to unsubscribe. Interact with one page means the unsubscribe link takes them to a web page, where they are either unsubscribed automatically, or push some button on that web page to complete the unsubscribe process. (That would be interacting with that single web page.)
For more information on CAN-SPAM, visit our CAN-SPAM Information Center at http://canspam.etdeliverability.com/
Phrases like “drip campaign”, “automated email drip”, “drip email program”, and “drip email” are thrown around ExactTarget a lot. This is because ExactTarget is in the business of sending email, especially automated email drips. However, everyone may not understand what a drip campaign is. Let me tell you a little bit about the basics of drip marketing.
Drip marketing comes from the phrase drip irrigation, which is where crops are watered in small amounts over a long period of time. This same concept is applied to marketing and is called drip model marketing. Customers or potential customers are given small amounts of information over a long period of time.
The idea behind a drip campaign is that it takes between 3 and 30 impressions of a brand to make it sink in. When creating a drip campaign its important to have a consistent brand with varying messages to help develop the reputation of your company.
Drip emails are the most common type of drip communication, however there are other ways to communicate in a drip campaign. Some other options are - voice messages, SMS messaging, and direct mail.
Drip model marketing is a good way to help avoid always trying to sell a product and a good excuse to provide content that will engage subscribers. Think of this as a great way to nurture your potential clients. Drip marketing can be used for business to consumer or business to business email marketing solutions.
The good news is ExactTarget is one of the best email marketing software providers for creating automated email integration. To learn more about ExactTarget checkout their website.
Drip marketing comes from the phrase drip irrigation, which is where crops are watered in small amounts over a long period of time. This same concept is applied to marketing and is called drip model marketing. Customers or potential customers are given small amounts of information over a long period of time.The idea behind a drip campaign is that it takes between 3 and 30 impressions of a brand to make it sink in. When creating a drip campaign its important to have a consistent brand with varying messages to help develop the reputation of your company.
Drip emails are the most common type of drip communication, however there are other ways to communicate in a drip campaign. Some other options are - voice messages, SMS messaging, and direct mail.
Drip model marketing is a good way to help avoid always trying to sell a product and a good excuse to provide content that will engage subscribers. Think of this as a great way to nurture your potential clients. Drip marketing can be used for business to consumer or business to business email marketing solutions.
The good news is ExactTarget is one of the best email marketing software providers for creating automated email integration. To learn more about ExactTarget checkout their website.
The issue of permission presents one of the greatest threats to the future of email marketing. According to data shared by Julie Katz at Connections ’09, consumers want greater control over email. They want control over SPAM, they want to be able to unsubscribe from email more easily, and they want greater control over the frequency of commercial email coming to their inboxes.
In both 2008 and 2009 we asked consumers to indicate how acceptable it was for them to be contacted via email for “Promotional messages (i.e., sale, special offers) from companies whom you regularly conduct business, but have not specifically asked for ongoing information.” As we outlined in the 2009 Channel Preference Study, consumers’ attitude toward non-permission communications from known companies is souring quickly. In 2009, 50% of consumers considered these messages with unacceptable, nearly doubled from 26% in 2008. The belief that marketers can send email to their customers based on a ‘prior existing relationship’—the premise for email appends—is dead. Customers don’t want the practice to continue.
Nevertheless, the industry continues to allow embarrassing practices like email appending and list rental. Not surprisingly, the only people that fully endorse these practices are those that profit directly from them. The rest of us squirm and manage to squeak out the words, “It can work, if you do it right.” However, few believe that it ever will be done right on a consistent basis. After all, we've been writing about this for quite a while.
There are three interrelated reasons for this. First, as I mentioned in my first post in this series, email is too easy and too cheap. It’s simply easier to do email appends and list rental incorrectly, using an opt-out model that has no regard for permission. The numbers are more impressive--and let's face it, big lists still sound better than little ones. Second, pricing models are still based on match rates and list sizes. These models favor sending to the masses, which in turn favor the opt-out model. Third, since there are still enough suckers out there who will pay to do it incorrectly, email append and list rental vendors have no incentive to change their revenue model. Given that opt-in revenue models are likely to be less lucrative, it won't change until the issue is forced.
But it may already be too late for email append and list rental companies.
While the industry has failed to police itself, two entities with the ability to make real changes have lined up with consumers. First, ISPs continue to serve the best interests of their customers by increasingly relying on reputation systems that include engagement measures such as opens and clicks to determine if messages should be routed to the spam folder (see What’s in store at the ISPs 2009-2010 from Pivotal Veracity). Second, Canadian Parliament continues to push forward Canadian Electronic Commerce Protection Bill C-27 which mandates an opt-in standard.
Comparatively, US CAN-SPAM laws are notoriously weak, making the joke that US CAN-SPAM laws say, “yes, you can spam consumers so long as they can opt-out.” Unfortunately, Unfortunately, many companies use this law to condone their continued distribution of non-permission email. In short, the US Law falls short of meeting customer expectations—again more than half of consumers believe non-permission email is unacceptable, even when it's from a known company. This doesn’t support an opt-out standard. I interpret this as, “there is no excuse for sending email without the express consent of consumers. Period.”
Interestingly, in the same comparison of opt-in promotions from 2008 to 2009, there was no change. Consumers believe permission-based email is highly acceptable. In fact, given the choice, 75% of US consumers (see the 2009 Channel Preferences Study) and 74% of UK consumers (see Strategy Meets Customer Expectations) prefer to receive permission based promotional messages through email.
It’s simply that we need to draw a hard and fast line. Opt-in permission should be the only standard by which we live. Not supporting efforts to eliminate questionable practices in our industry reflects poorly on the industry as a whole. After all, as Matt Blumberg, CEO of ReturnPath, recently wrote, “What's good for consumers is great for direct marketers. Marketing is not what it used to be, the lines between good and bad actors have been blurred, and the consumer is now in charge.” Amen!
It's time we completely honor consumers' preference for an opt-in standard. We can no longer afford to lend any support, even passively through silence, those who don't.
In both 2008 and 2009 we asked consumers to indicate how acceptable it was for them to be contacted via email for “Promotional messages (i.e., sale, special offers) from companies whom you regularly conduct business, but have not specifically asked for ongoing information.” As we outlined in the 2009 Channel Preference Study, consumers’ attitude toward non-permission communications from known companies is souring quickly. In 2009, 50% of consumers considered these messages with unacceptable, nearly doubled from 26% in 2008. The belief that marketers can send email to their customers based on a ‘prior existing relationship’—the premise for email appends—is dead. Customers don’t want the practice to continue.
Nevertheless, the industry continues to allow embarrassing practices like email appending and list rental. Not surprisingly, the only people that fully endorse these practices are those that profit directly from them. The rest of us squirm and manage to squeak out the words, “It can work, if you do it right.” However, few believe that it ever will be done right on a consistent basis. After all, we've been writing about this for quite a while.
There are three interrelated reasons for this. First, as I mentioned in my first post in this series, email is too easy and too cheap. It’s simply easier to do email appends and list rental incorrectly, using an opt-out model that has no regard for permission. The numbers are more impressive--and let's face it, big lists still sound better than little ones. Second, pricing models are still based on match rates and list sizes. These models favor sending to the masses, which in turn favor the opt-out model. Third, since there are still enough suckers out there who will pay to do it incorrectly, email append and list rental vendors have no incentive to change their revenue model. Given that opt-in revenue models are likely to be less lucrative, it won't change until the issue is forced.
But it may already be too late for email append and list rental companies.
While the industry has failed to police itself, two entities with the ability to make real changes have lined up with consumers. First, ISPs continue to serve the best interests of their customers by increasingly relying on reputation systems that include engagement measures such as opens and clicks to determine if messages should be routed to the spam folder (see What’s in store at the ISPs 2009-2010 from Pivotal Veracity). Second, Canadian Parliament continues to push forward Canadian Electronic Commerce Protection Bill C-27 which mandates an opt-in standard.
Comparatively, US CAN-SPAM laws are notoriously weak, making the joke that US CAN-SPAM laws say, “yes, you can spam consumers so long as they can opt-out.” Unfortunately, Unfortunately, many companies use this law to condone their continued distribution of non-permission email. In short, the US Law falls short of meeting customer expectations—again more than half of consumers believe non-permission email is unacceptable, even when it's from a known company. This doesn’t support an opt-out standard. I interpret this as, “there is no excuse for sending email without the express consent of consumers. Period.”
Interestingly, in the same comparison of opt-in promotions from 2008 to 2009, there was no change. Consumers believe permission-based email is highly acceptable. In fact, given the choice, 75% of US consumers (see the 2009 Channel Preferences Study) and 74% of UK consumers (see Strategy Meets Customer Expectations) prefer to receive permission based promotional messages through email.
It’s simply that we need to draw a hard and fast line. Opt-in permission should be the only standard by which we live. Not supporting efforts to eliminate questionable practices in our industry reflects poorly on the industry as a whole. After all, as Matt Blumberg, CEO of ReturnPath, recently wrote, “What's good for consumers is great for direct marketers. Marketing is not what it used to be, the lines between good and bad actors have been blurred, and the consumer is now in charge.” Amen!
It's time we completely honor consumers' preference for an opt-in standard. We can no longer afford to lend any support, even passively through silence, those who don't.
Embeddable
ěm-běd'ə-bəl
–verb (used with object)
1. Ability to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic
2. Capacity to leverage existing code and infrastructure to save costs and accelerate speed to market
3. Marketing automation technology from ExactTarget
Commercial Software developers and IT professionals need power, control and flexibility when it comes to managing the lifeblood of the business – INFORMATION! ExactTarget delivers on all fronts with its agile and embeddable marketing automation technology and services.
Contact your marketing automation partners at ExactTarget today to see how our technology can augment your technology stack and go to market strategy.
ěm-běd'ə-bəl
–verb (used with object)
1. Ability to incorporate or contain as an essential part or characteristic
2. Capacity to leverage existing code and infrastructure to save costs and accelerate speed to market
3. Marketing automation technology from ExactTarget
Commercial Software developers and IT professionals need power, control and flexibility when it comes to managing the lifeblood of the business – INFORMATION! ExactTarget delivers on all fronts with its agile and embeddable marketing automation technology and services.
Contact your marketing automation partners at ExactTarget today to see how our technology can augment your technology stack and go to market strategy.
Your email marketing messages don't have to be processed right away. Different timing is appropriate for different tasks, and in some cases the ExactTarget application gives you the control to choose how--and when--your system does its work.
Asynchronous
An asynchronous process is a process that runs “behind the scenes” while you continue to use the interface to perform other tasks. You receive an email or other alert that the process is complete so that you can view the results.
For example, if you start an asynchronous report, the report runs while you continue working. When the report is done, you receive an email that contains the report results.
Scheduled
A scheduled process is a process that runs automatically at the time you designate. You receive an email or other alert that the process is complete so that you can view the results.
For example, if you schedule an email send to begin at 11p.m., the system begins the send at 11p.m. and can send you an email when the process completes to give details on the success of the send.
Real-Time
A real‐time process is a process that runs in the foreground of your application. You cannot
perform other tasks while the real‐time process is running. When the process is complete, the application presents the results on your screen.
Asynchronous
An asynchronous process is a process that runs “behind the scenes” while you continue to use the interface to perform other tasks. You receive an email or other alert that the process is complete so that you can view the results.
For example, if you start an asynchronous report, the report runs while you continue working. When the report is done, you receive an email that contains the report results.
Scheduled
A scheduled process is a process that runs automatically at the time you designate. You receive an email or other alert that the process is complete so that you can view the results.
For example, if you schedule an email send to begin at 11p.m., the system begins the send at 11p.m. and can send you an email when the process completes to give details on the success of the send.
Real-Time
A real‐time process is a process that runs in the foreground of your application. You cannot
perform other tasks while the real‐time process is running. When the process is complete, the application presents the results on your screen.
written by David Hoang
With the move from Outlook 2003 to 2007, Microsoft made a lot of security improvements. Along with that, however, were a number of design changes. Outlook changed its engine for rendering HTML content from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Word. Before, it essentially meant that if your code looked good in Internet Explorer, it looked good in Outlook.
However, that is not the case anymore.
This is a huge impact in the way we design emails; because of the high volume of Outlook users, particularly in the Business-to-Business realm.
Here are a few key elements to consider while designing email messages in Outlook 2007 to ensure it looks sharp.
Keep your styles in-line
Though Outlook 2007 does support embedded CSS, there are certain properties that present challenges, such as margin, line-height and float/clear. Keep your styles in-line while you are designing. In addition to being an email design best practice, using style attributes in-line will help ensure that your message renders properly.
No Animated .gif files
Animated .gif files will not function in Outlook 2007. However, there is a solution for using .gif files with Outlook 2007. Since the file will not animate, you only need to make sure the first frame makes sense; as that is what will appear in Outlook 2007.
Contain Yourself, No Floating!
Outlook 2007 does not support floating or CSS positioning in any capacity. Use standard HTML tables to contain and control the layout. This will ensure that your design elements won’t go flying all over the place!
Specify Accurate Table Widths
When using HTML tables it is important to specify accurate table widths to ensure proper display in Outlook 2007. This is especially important in table structures that contain multiple columns. For example, when you have a table cell that spans two columns, the width for that cell should equal the sum of the widths of the other two cells.
Continue Using Alt Tags
As it was in Outlook 2003, it is in 2007; images will automatically be blocked. While you’re designing your email message, keep in mind of what it will look like with images disabled. Remember that Outlook will display alt tags, but they will only appear after a default security message. For a list of acceptable tags in Outlook 2007, check out this guide on Microsoft’s website.
No Forms
Outlook 2007 disables embedded forms. If you design an email with a survey or form in the content, include a direct link (hosted from a website) to the survey for your Outlook users. Indicate clearly in your design that the form is not broken, so subscribers don’t get frustrated by trying to fill out the form.
With 2010 quickly approaching, you may be wonder if there will be any major CSS/HTML changes in Outlook 2010. Right now, don’t expect major changes.
To conclude, sticking to standard HTML table design for emails should help you effectively render emails in Outlook 2007. Be sure to read our design tips in the coming weeks for rendering tips in other email clients, including our past issue: Email Rendering in Hotmail by Anna Meier. Portions of this blog, Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007 and more information on email rendering can be found in our white paper “Email Marketing Design: The New Essentials.”
For additional information about rendering in Outlook 2007, check out our white paper, Seven Email Marketing Design Tips for Outlook 2007.
With the move from Outlook 2003 to 2007, Microsoft made a lot of security improvements. Along with that, however, were a number of design changes. Outlook changed its engine for rendering HTML content from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Word. Before, it essentially meant that if your code looked good in Internet Explorer, it looked good in Outlook.
However, that is not the case anymore.
This is a huge impact in the way we design emails; because of the high volume of Outlook users, particularly in the Business-to-Business realm.
Here are a few key elements to consider while designing email messages in Outlook 2007 to ensure it looks sharp.
Keep your styles in-line
Though Outlook 2007 does support embedded CSS, there are certain properties that present challenges, such as margin, line-height and float/clear. Keep your styles in-line while you are designing. In addition to being an email design best practice, using style attributes in-line will help ensure that your message renders properly.
No Animated .gif files
Animated .gif files will not function in Outlook 2007. However, there is a solution for using .gif files with Outlook 2007. Since the file will not animate, you only need to make sure the first frame makes sense; as that is what will appear in Outlook 2007.
Contain Yourself, No Floating!
Outlook 2007 does not support floating or CSS positioning in any capacity. Use standard HTML tables to contain and control the layout. This will ensure that your design elements won’t go flying all over the place!
Specify Accurate Table Widths
When using HTML tables it is important to specify accurate table widths to ensure proper display in Outlook 2007. This is especially important in table structures that contain multiple columns. For example, when you have a table cell that spans two columns, the width for that cell should equal the sum of the widths of the other two cells.
Continue Using Alt Tags
As it was in Outlook 2003, it is in 2007; images will automatically be blocked. While you’re designing your email message, keep in mind of what it will look like with images disabled. Remember that Outlook will display alt tags, but they will only appear after a default security message. For a list of acceptable tags in Outlook 2007, check out this guide on Microsoft’s website.
No Forms
Outlook 2007 disables embedded forms. If you design an email with a survey or form in the content, include a direct link (hosted from a website) to the survey for your Outlook users. Indicate clearly in your design that the form is not broken, so subscribers don’t get frustrated by trying to fill out the form.
With 2010 quickly approaching, you may be wonder if there will be any major CSS/HTML changes in Outlook 2010. Right now, don’t expect major changes.
To conclude, sticking to standard HTML table design for emails should help you effectively render emails in Outlook 2007. Be sure to read our design tips in the coming weeks for rendering tips in other email clients, including our past issue: Email Rendering in Hotmail by Anna Meier. Portions of this blog, Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007 and more information on email rendering can be found in our white paper “Email Marketing Design: The New Essentials.”
For additional information about rendering in Outlook 2007, check out our white paper, Seven Email Marketing Design Tips for Outlook 2007.
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