This just in: 18-24 year olds think of email as a “formal” medium of communication. This is ironic, maybe even laughable or disturbing to some. I remember when email was first coming into broader adoption in the mid-90’s I read editorials discussing the demise of manners due to the loss of the personal, handwritten letter.

College students just think differently than us older (ahem, established career) folks. We recently hosted a panel of students from Ball State’s Center for Media Design (CMD) who hit this point home. For them, social media and SMS round out the top forms of personal messaging, and email is the realm of the formal, the land of the adults, parents, professors, and even grandmas. One student on the panel even said: “An email is like getting a letter. It’s just above a Facebook wall post of “sweet things.” Awesome.

This perception of greater importance, gravity, and formality of email could actually serve marketers well. For businesses that know how to respect the rights of their subscribers, and send relevant, permission-based and personalized content there is simply no evidence to support the pundits predicting the demise of the email. Email is still incredibly viable for all age audiences for messaging and permission-based marketing.

The 18-24 demographic is very savvy with technology, however. Growing up with email, they are masters of “making it work” for themselves so it fits with their lives and preferences. At our panel discussion the students commonly reported having multiple email addresses – each address with a distinct purpose. For example, one student said, “I have my college email address for emails from my administration and professors, then a Gmail account for the signing up for ‘stuff I want,’ to get about products, etc…and I have a Yahoo address for spam, which I use when I’m on a gamer site and I just want to play, not get their crap. It’s kind of a throwaway address.”

Everyone likes a handwritten letter. Why? I think there are two main reasons. First, letters are a symbol of caring due to the time investment required to create one. Second, the personal nature of seeing a friend or relative’s handwriting is simply compelling, flattering, and human. Letters are formal and show that the sender “cared” enough to take the time to write, etc. Direct Marketers figured this out in the 80’s and companies like Intelligent Ink sprouted up to add a new type of personal, human touch to direct mail. They employed an army of minimum wage workers with good penmanship to personalize envelopes. Though this technique may seem trite today, when these first hit mailboxes a few decades back the concept was new and differentiated, and the response increase was through the roof!

Think how you can improve your program by adding personalization and a bit of care to your next campaign. Start by thinking of your subscribers as individuals and you’re on the right track.

The future for email, however, is much brighter than it is for direct mail. Even in this down economy, a new study from eConsultancy says that 59% of companies plan to increase their spend on email marketing in the coming 12 months. Now if I could only get a fancy wax seal on my email...

JamBase Monetizes its Email Program

Last week, DMNews carried a great article describing how live music promoter, JamBase, is monetizing its email program by running ads inside the emails that alert fans when and where their favorite artists are performing. I think my friend, Andy Gadiel, and his gang may be on to something big here.
For brands that have been smart about building a quality email subscriber database, they now have a great way to capitalize on their efforts by offering advertisers a unique opportunity to reach a very qualified – and loyal – audience.
In case you got an early start on the Thanksgiving holiday, and missed it, here’s an excerpt:

“For online music site JamBase, monetizing e-mails just got easier. Since its ad network partner, Google Ad Manager, and its e-mail service provider (ESP), ExactTarget, integrated into one platform last week, JamBase is now running ads inside of its e-mails.

The new ExactTarget offering, deemed Live Ads, an integration with Google Ad Manager and Dart for Publishers, is helpful for a brand which usually finances its e-mails through sponsorships. The e-commerce site is a destination for music fans to learn all about upcoming concerts and music events. Fans who opt in to receive e-mails get updates about concerts coming to their area and information about bands they like.

Normally, the e-mails are paid for by the concert promoter, but this has caused a challenge when the promoter of a customer's favorite band did not sponsor an e-mail. To address this issue, last year the brand launched New Show Alerts, so that customers could always get an e-mail alert about a show for their favorite band no matter if the promoter was paying for the spot or not. But now, thanks to the new ExactTarget offering, JamBase is able to keep the consumer happy and finance their promotions.

“Because of [ExactTarget's] integration with Google Ad Manager, we can include ads in those e-mails so it solves the problem of who will pay for the e-mail,” said Andy Gadiel, founder/president of JamBase. “It helps us keep providing the service to help customers keep up to date with the music that they love.”

Hope to See You at NCDM
If you’re looking for an “executive primer” on email marketing, I highly recommend you sign up for the special pre-conference workshop that my friend and colleague Jeanne Jennings of JeanneJennings.com will lead at the upcoming National Center for Database Marketing Conference (NCDM) in Orlando. Our seminar, “Insider Tips for Making Your Email Marketing Efforts More Effective – and More Profitable” will be held on Monday, December 8th from 9:10 AM to 11:50 AM.

If you have not yet registered for NCDM, there’s still time and there are plenty of registration options to fit your needs. To register, just go to the NCDM registration page on the NCDM 2008 website where you can also download the complete NCDM 2008 Conference Brochure.

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating on a panel at the inaugural Internet Summit ’08 conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The event attracted more than 600 marketing and technology professionals to the Friday Center on the UNC campus. It was a first class event all the way around. My compliments to Eric Gregg, Scott Hedrick and the TechJournal South team who produced this conference.

Our panel tackled the topic, “Next Generation Email Marketing” and not surprisingly, many of the questions focused on how businesses are using email to stay engaged with customers and prospects in today’s challenging economy.

One thing is clear. Those companies that have invested in the development of their email subscriber base are now reaping the rewards for their efforts. Companies that have the ability to use email to nurture leads, convert prospects to buyers, drive repeat purchase, and generate referrals from satisfied customers have a huge competitive advantage over those that don’t. 

At a time when advertising and marketing expenses are being slashed and marketers need to do more with less, it’s no mystery why we are seeing budgets shifting to email. With an average ROI of $45 for every dollar spent (Source: The DMA), email has become the “linchpin solution” for customer retention and growth.

Where to Get Your Email Marketing “Executive MBA”

If you want to know about the top trends and best practices of email marketing, I highly recommend you sign up for the special pre-conference workshop that my friend and colleague Jeanne Jennings of JeanneJennings.com will lead at the upcoming National Center for Database Marketing Conference (NCDM) in Orlando. Our seminar, “Insider Tips for Making Your Email Marketing Efforts More Effective – and More Profitable” will be held on Monday, December 8th from 9:10 AM to 11:50 AM.

Whether you’re managing email, direct marketing, or the web, figuring out the best combination of customer touch points to increase response rates and drive sales shouldn’t be a guessing game. At NCDM, you’ll learn about the latest online and offline analytical approaches, multichannel marketing strategies and technology solutions that you need to make your database marketing program effective.

Get Registered for NCDM!
If you have not yet registered for NCDM, there’s still time and there are plenty of registration options to fit your needs. To register, just go to the NCDM registration page on the NCDM 2008 website where you can also download the complete NCDM 2008 Conference Brochure.

I Just Called…To Say….That Voice + Email is Powerful Punch

With all the buzz around channels like Voice and SMS, it can be tempting to implement new programs just for the sake of doing what’s hot.  And let’s face it, that’s not so hot for your subscribers.  So if you’ve been searching for a meaningful way to incorporate Voice into your own marketing campaigns, bravo! 

Truth is, we’ve been looking, too.  Sure, ExactTarget offers the integrated one-to-one platform to make sending Email, SMS and Voice from a single user interface a snap.  But we’ve been known as a leading email company for years, and our B2B environment often lacks the promotional and urgent nature that’s so conducive for some emerging media.

So when R.J. Talyor, one of our Product Marketing Managers and Voice Expert Extraordinaire, approached us about conducting a Voice test for the Email Marketing Intelligence Webinar Series we’re hosting with MarketingSherpa, I was a little apprehensive.  Would it add value for our webinar registrants?  Would they be receptive to new channels of communication from ExactTarget?  Can Voice make a measurable impact on the event attendance?

In short, all findings point to YES.  I’m pleased to report that the Voice testing results from the first webinar were extremely positive.  I hope you find the following information both useful and encouraging when considering how (and when) to add Voice into your own marketing mix.

Webinar Reminder Testing Goal:  To find the ideal messaging mix to drive webinar attendance via reminders

Testing Approach
Registrant list split into three random groups to receive reminders the day of the event.

• Email-Only Reminder Group
• Voice-Only Reminder Group
• Email + Voice Reminder Group

Test Findings

• Email + Voice reminders drove the highest webinar attendance (43%)
• Email-only reminder came in second (36.3%)
• Voice-only reminder drove fewest attendees (29.6%)

 We’ll be continuing to test Voice for the next few webinars, so sign up to see them in action and stay tuned for further results!

Cheers,
Ashley Sales
Manager, Marketing Communications

Sometimes, we get letters. Jared writes, “Its great to see your helping people get away with spamming. You should throw my email into your mass email spam lists. Get in line with the others.”

I find this type of email really frustrating. I don’t hear stuff like this all that often, thankfully. But when I do hear it, I wonder, what? Get away with spamming? You really think that’s what ExactTarget does? Help people spam? Yuck.

Jared also sent along a link to some old blog post that shows how long subject lines can be in different email clients. So, he might not be all that knowledgeable about email or have a clear picture as to what he’s mad about.

Regardless, that got me thinking. If somebody out there does think that about us, maybe I should take the time to answer the implied question. Do we spam? Allow spam? Help spammers? The answer is a loud and clear NO. NO, we are not spammers. NO, we don’t allow spam. NO, we don’t support spam.

ExactTarget is not a list broker. Don’t call us to buy a list. We don’t sell them. We don’t buy them, either, so spammers should feel free to stop trying to get me interested in their “guaranteed opt-in leads.”

We don’t allow clients to buy lists. This isn’t a lead generation system, and permission-based email doesn’t work with lead generation lists. It’s just not compatible.

ExactTarget is a tool. A really powerful and useful tool, one that allows our clients to mail their own customers. People who have signed up to receive email from them directly, not to mail random people that some company *thinks* might want to hear from them.

The six of us here on the core deliverability services team act as the spam police. We enforce our anti-spam policy, sending guidelines and thresholds, and the opt-in provisions of our contracts. We suspend, reform or terminate spammers regularly.

We look at what clients are doing constantly.

• If too much of a client’s list is filtered out at import,  
• If too much of their mail bounces,  
• If they receive too many spam complaints from a large ISP,  
• If they get blacklisted by a reputable blacklist like Spamhaus or Spamcop,  
• Or if they do something that shows me that they’re not complying with the opt-in consent requirements contained in our contract,  
• Then the client is funneled through our policy enforcement/best practices process to help address the issue, reform the process, remove the bad list, educate the client, and, if those steps all fail, terminate that client.  

Over the past month or so, we’ve worked with over twenty-five clients, guiding them on how to shore up their opt-in practices; giving them a clear understanding that only opt-in is allowed. For a few of those, we told them we’re not going to be able reach out to an ISP for assistance until a problem is resolved. In some of those past instances, our requirement has been that the client must reconfirm their existing email list.

We end up terminating an average of one client a month, and this month was no different. Of course, we like our clients a lot, and ones that can be reformed, we’d much rather reform them than terminate them. A reformed client means no more spam, and a client we keep means they keep paying us. Everybody wins. But, they don’t always want to work with us, or don’t always agree with our policies. And in those cases, it’s in our best interest to move on. So we do.

That’s what me and my team here at ExactTarget have done to stop spam lately. What have you done to stop spam lately?

Steve's passion is helping organizations create major profit breakthroughs through better connections with customers. As a consultant, speaker and writer he challenges his clients, audiences and readers to reinvent the way they look at marketing, offering clear action steps to improve business performance through stronger customer relationships.

Below is the live blog of Steve's keynote.  Make sure you check out the great blog post on the keynote from Tom Dressler at Marketer Insight.

9:00AM: Steve Yastrow has taken the stage - asked what companies are getting all the profits they can - no one raised their hand.  Are you getting 100% of all the business you could? 

9:02AM: Steve was in Puerto Rico on Saturday. Must've been nice!

9:10AM: "Brute Force Marketing" doesn't work anymore. It's 2008 no one wants to be told what to do! We see 5000 branded messages (wow!) how many make an impression on you? I know it's not 5000.

9:18AM: Marketers aren't the ones doing the integrated marketing.  The customers are the ones integrating the marketing.

9:34AM: Relationships are what differentiate companies, and having that ongoing converstion with a customer.  This is exactly what Subscribers Rule! is all about.

9:41AM: Engagement.  You can tell when someone is not engaged.  The challenge is how do we engage in the moment when we have cell calls, emails, and everything that distracts us throughout the day. Chapter 2 of We (everyone here is getting the book!) has ideas on how to get engaged in the moment

9:46AM: Uniqueness.  Your customers know when they are getting the "spiel" (I got the spiel at Shulas Steakhouse  - it was robotic!) How do you get to know you customer?

9:53AM: How does this relate to email marketing? Have you written that email for them? Have you enabled that customer thru your email communication?

9:55AM: 50 First Dates a Business Movie?

10:00AM: Great Keynote! "The customer thinks we" is such a great idea. I think it's why Twitter can be so successful.

"The American Red Cross has stood alongside the members of the U.S Armed Forces for more than 125 years. The American Red Cross is the only agency recognized by the military to act as the medium of communication between Americans and their Armed Forces. The Red Cross is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to provide emergency communications and other support services to military families, providing a support system to help military families cope with emergencies that are only intensified by military life and frequent, lengthy separations. 
 
Today, as more and more citizen-soldiers from the National Guard and Reserves are called up from communities around central Indiana to serve overseas, the Greater Indianapolis Red Cross has expanded its outreach services to provide more comprehensive support to families during their deployment, adjustment and reintegration periods."

Melinda Baxter, Director of Marketing Services

Here’s a common question I receive. “Wow! Movies in email! Company X says it’s easy, and we should partner with them to do it.  They say our clicks and sales will increase madly!”

First, here is some clarity around the technology picture:

Our whitepaper “Email Marketing Design & Rendering: The New Essentials” talks about this directly on page ten: “Embedding Flash or video in email will cause major deliverability issues.  If delivered, these design elements will be stripped or disabled.  If you want to use rich media, use a screenshot of the media linking to the “live” version on your website.  Animated .gifs are also alternatives that work across many – but not all – email clients”

Next, I’ll focus on the impact:

ExactTarget customers (and even ET ourselves) regularly leverage videos to engage subscribers. We don’t do this by embedding the video in the email, but by linking to the video. Our own “InSight” newsletter has used this technique.  Some of our customers have found that linking to video generates the highest clicks in their email – this is an excellent thing to test! The success is generally related to the relevance of the video content to the subscriber, and it’s not always a silver bullet.

We have customers that use videos to link to product demos on their web site, fashion show footage, “how to” instructional videos, CEO messages, etc..  Some have such success with videos as an engagement technique that they tease it in their subject line to increase open rates.  Others have tested it against Q & As, with the Q & A format outperforming the video.

"How Stuff Works" features a video in prime real estate each newsletter (btw - I think this is a very fun newsletter to read!):

Advance Auto Parts also links to "How to" videos each newsletter, along with other interactive links...



Like any other engagement technique to increase subscriber interest and involvement in your email and brand, test it to learn what performs best for your subscribers. 

Got the picture?