House of Email Marketing
ExactTarget’s Chip House eats, sleeps &
breathes email marketing best practices so
you don’t have to.
ExactTarget’s Chip House eats, sleeps &
breathes email marketing best practices so
you don’t have to.
You're likely not surprised to hear that 90% of the email ISPs have to deal with is spam, which has driven them to constantly evolve and improve their filtering processes. Competition for users with mail accounts hasn't abated, meaning that the ISP that does the best job of keeping the inbox clean and relevant wins.
In a recent article at eM+C titled: "The Effect of Email Engagement on Inbox Delivery" I discuss the balancing act marketers need to deal with at major ISPs. In this article I mention: "For marketers, this means that gone are the days when you can email away willy-nilly while ignoring what’s happening on the other end. You need to monitor all of your campaigns for engagement, looking primarily for opens and clicks, which indicate that subscribers care about your email. If they don’t, over time the sum total of those ignoring you may outweigh the ones that are paying attention to you. If, in addition to this, some portion of your target audience continues to vote your email as spam, you could end up in the spam folder."
We have evidence showing that Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and AOL.com all monitor the engagement level of your email recipients as part of their email filtering algorithms. We've known for years that ISPs monitor user complaints, but now the implicit actions of your subscribers are just as important as the explicit actions. I like to think of the process as being a large scale used to distinguish the mail that recipients want from the mail that they don't want.
Al Iverson hit this in his recent blog titled, "The Rise of Emperor Engagement." In it he states, "If your mail is going to the bulk folder at a top ISP, it's probably going to be because recipients don't care about your email. They're not engaged."
The good news is that focusing on creating content and offers that your subscribers want will not only boost your deliverability, it will also boost your email revenues!
In a recent article at eM+C titled: "The Effect of Email Engagement on Inbox Delivery" I discuss the balancing act marketers need to deal with at major ISPs. In this article I mention: "For marketers, this means that gone are the days when you can email away willy-nilly while ignoring what’s happening on the other end. You need to monitor all of your campaigns for engagement, looking primarily for opens and clicks, which indicate that subscribers care about your email. If they don’t, over time the sum total of those ignoring you may outweigh the ones that are paying attention to you. If, in addition to this, some portion of your target audience continues to vote your email as spam, you could end up in the spam folder."
We have evidence showing that Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and AOL.com all monitor the engagement level of your email recipients as part of their email filtering algorithms. We've known for years that ISPs monitor user complaints, but now the implicit actions of your subscribers are just as important as the explicit actions. I like to think of the process as being a large scale used to distinguish the mail that recipients want from the mail that they don't want.
Al Iverson hit this in his recent blog titled, "The Rise of Emperor Engagement." In it he states, "If your mail is going to the bulk folder at a top ISP, it's probably going to be because recipients don't care about your email. They're not engaged."
The good news is that focusing on creating content and offers that your subscribers want will not only boost your deliverability, it will also boost your email revenues!
The Maine legislature just recently enacted a privacy law called “the Act to Prevent Predatory Marketing Practices against Minors.” While the goal is certainly worthwhile, the law is so packed with potential pitfalls for legitimate marketers that an 8/30/09 Media Post article reported “A coalition of media organizations and Web companies including AOL, Yahoo and eBay challenged the measure in court on Wednesday.” Despite the uproar, the law will go into effect on September 12th, 2009. Here is the complete bill: Marketing and Data Collection Practices.
Though the law doesn’t specifically identify email marketing, it does cover the collection and use of all personal information (also called PII) for minors under 18 without parental consent. An email address is PII by most accounts. The legislations also prohibits marketing based on this personal information. The act reads: “… A person may not use any health-related information or personal information regarding a minor for the purpose of marketing a product or service to that minor or promoting any course of action for the minor relating to a product.”
An article in the Portland Press Herald reported, “The law makes it illegal for anyone (or a Web site) to collect health or other personal information from anyone under 18 for marketing purposes without getting parental consent. The penalty for companies that break the law is up to $20,000.” Looking at the act I noticed that the second violation mandates the $20K fine, "No less than $20,000 for a 2nd or subsequent violation."
It is possible that federal laws such as COPPA could preempt this new law if it comes to that. However, in the meantime email marketers should work with their own legal counsel to determine how to take action to protect their company from running afoul of the law. Complying will be burdensome for most. It could mean excluding teens from promotions, and prevent them from accessing your online sign-up forms. Also, since the law allows for private right of action, even individuals who feel they’ve been wronged under the law can file a civil complaint.
The silver lining here is the Maine State Attorney General has also mentioned her concern. Media Post reports, “'The Attorney General's position is that she's not enforcing the law,' Maine Deputy Attorney General Paul Stern said Friday.”
Each year at the ExactTarget Connections conference we give out awards to our clients that have demonstrated some of the best programs, designs, list growth and results of the year. This year is no different…but there is a new twist. This year we’re launching the SUBSCRIBERS RULE! Awards. 
There are 5 key awards and 3 grand prizes that go to those programs that best honor the three main tenets of our SR! philosophy:
1. Serve the individual.
2. Honor their unique preferences for communication, content, frequency and channel.
3. Deliver them timely, relevant content that improves their lives
If you are an ExactTarget client or partner you can now nominate yourself, or another program online. Nominations are only open until Friday, September 4th so please start those wheels turning now.
Submit nominations here!
Award Categories are:
Communication & Content Relevance Award
Do you design your content around subscriber preferences? This award focuses on customers that have shown big improvements in subscriber relevancy by designing emails to match subscriber preferences. Of course design and metrics matter here!
Behavior & Data Relevance Award
This award is for marketers that have really done a great job integrating and leveraging data from multiple sources (CRM, analytics, POS) in a way that results in more individualized communications through ExactTarget.
Channel Preference Award
Honoring your subscribers’ channel preferences to receive email via email, SMS, voice or other channels? If so, this award is for you! Nominees must have used at least two messaging channels and will be judged on demonstrated customer retention or lift in response.
Permission-based List Growth Award
The best marketing lists are grown subscriber by subscriber while honoring permission. If you are an ExactTarget customer using unique, permission-based list capture strategies that have shown big improvements in list growth or response rates then we want to hear from you!
Improving Lives Award
Who says email can’t change lives? Many of our customers in non-profit and profit sectors help others every day. This award is for a customer with the most inspirational story of how their one-to-one marketing efforts are improving the lives of their customers.
Grand Prizes:
Reseller Partner of the Year Award
From beginning to end this ExactTarget Reseller demonstrates excellence in email marketing strategy, design, integration, execution and client success all while honoring the tenets Subscribers Rule!
Embedded Partner of the Year
A number of companies have embedded ExactTarget into their software application. This award is for the best embedded solution that honors Subscribers Rule!
Email Program of the Year Award
This award will simply go to the best of the best. The grand prize winner of the SR! Awards 2009 will be the best overall email marketing program that honors the tenets of Subscribers Rule from start to finish. That includes solid strategy, data management, creative, use of dynamic content and targeting, integration, and results!
One thing is for sure…we’ll have a great time giving out the awards this year. ExactTarget customers never disappoint. There are always some amazing programs shown off at these awards and I’m sure this year will be no different!
Sometimes I marvel at the fact that though email has been around for over 30 years, there is still so much confusion surrounding the basics of email delivery. Many in our industry don’t help the matter at all because they prefer to create fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) around email delivery because they feel that obfuscation will serve them well and buy them customers. The outcome is confusion and distrust. Stephanie Miller hit this issue head on in her article: “Delivered: Does Not Mean In the Inbox.”
Email delivery is managed by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) that has been around, essentially in its current form, for years and years. However, the delivery ecosystem around SMTP has been evolving rapidly, nearly daily in fact, in can differ widely from ISP to ISP. Each ISP leverages a unique set of both proprietary and public filtering technology, private and public blacklists, as well as their own bounce codes, bounce descriptions, whitelists, user complaint tools, complaint feedback loops, and postmaster policies. One thing is for sure, SMTP only tells you if the ISP accepted the email. It doesn’t tell you “where” it was placed. If it was placed in the spam box (most often called spam folder or bulk folder) it likely won’t get read. The logic determining in which box your email is placed is largely subject to the interplay of technologies and policies unique to the ISP and email software in use. So, whether or not your email makes it to the inbox or the spam box will depend on its ability to make it through all of these obstacles. As in an obstacle course, however, often only the fit make it through. To ensure your email is “fit” for the inbox, you need to be aware of which muscles you need to train.
Reputation is King. ISPs still focus on IP address reputation primarily when determining what mail to deliver and what mail to put in the spam folder or block. Since roughly 90% of the email ISPs is spam, they assume mail from a new IP address is spam until you prove otherwise. The only way to do that is to ensure your email is wanted by your recipients. That means using only permission-based list growth methods. It also means that all roads lead back to reputation. Here are some rules to help keep your reputation fit:
1. Once a bad reputation is established, it is difficult to hide from. In fact, trying to evade the filtering intelligence of most ISPs can get you in even more hot water and lengthen your stay in the spam folder.
2. Mind your branding. Ensure you are sending your email from the same brand that your subscribers opted in “to.” Sending from a different “from name” or email address will confuse the recipient, lead to complaints, and compromise your reputation.
3. Mind your frequency. Oversending will cause users to ignore you or complain about your email. Complaints destroy reputation, and work against your goals of hitting the inbox.
4. Mind your list. Monitor engagement. A retail customer of ours recently found themselves in the spam folder at a major ISP. The reason? There list was getting older, and fewer people were opening and clicking on the email than the number of recipients complaining. Some ISPs use “recipient engagement” as one of the pieces of their delivery/filtering algorithms. Find ways to modify frequency or content to re-engage names that haven’t opened or clicked in 90+ days. We helped them get back in the inbox by reducing their list to only the newest and most responsive recipients, and have since built their list back up by gradually introducing older, yet responsive names.
5. Monitor and optimize always. The ever-changing environment of delivery mandates it.
Executive Summary: Leverage Opt-in Tactics to Grow Your Email List the Right Way.
The lesson couldn’t be clearer, or more common sense. Yet, many marketers feel they need to lead with the close. As Seth Godin says in the landmark book Permission Marketing, “ Don’t propose marriage on the first date.” So, goes the metaphor, why do you think someone you just met will want to buy what you’re selling?
A similar theme was uncovered when ExactTarget , Ball State and the Email Marketers Club collaborated for the 2009 Email List Growth Study. The study was based on a detailed survey of U.S. and international email marketers and the tactics they found effective in 2008 and the opt-in list growth methods they planned to use in 2009. As many publications like marketingcharts.com and directmag.com can attest, many marketers are focusing on tactics that other marketers say aren’t worth the time.
As Ken Magill boiled it down in his newsletter yesterday: “Thirty two percent of marketers either rarely or never track the performance of their e-mail names by source...The troublesome statistic means almost a third of e-mail marketers could be throwing money away on bad sources of e-mail names. Moreover, bad list sources can lead to garbage addresses being introduced into marketers’ house files resulting in deliverability problems.”
In my own words, and as reported by marketers around the globe, the best way to grow your list often isn’t the fastest. Rather, it is subscriber by subscriber in a conversation that is initiated by the subscriber in the first place. Some might call this true opt-in. We call this Subscribers Rule! If you aren’t familiar, head on over to subscribersrule.com. It is more than a philosophy, it is a directive that marketers in 2009 need to follow to be successful. It is the recognition (in some cases resignation) that the subscriber is in control. With all of the din created by 20,467 marketing messages a week, consumers can’t take it all in.
Subscribers rule, a concept in list growth and profiling based on subscriber intent and initiation, says it all. Funny thing is, many marketers still won’t believe this study. They’ll continue to focus on quantity rather than quality of names. To them I say, please read what 351 other marketers say the best way is to grow your email list.
The lesson couldn’t be clearer, or more common sense. Yet, many marketers feel they need to lead with the close. As Seth Godin says in the landmark book Permission Marketing, “ Don’t propose marriage on the first date.” So, goes the metaphor, why do you think someone you just met will want to buy what you’re selling?
A similar theme was uncovered when ExactTarget , Ball State and the Email Marketers Club collaborated for the 2009 Email List Growth Study. The study was based on a detailed survey of U.S. and international email marketers and the tactics they found effective in 2008 and the opt-in list growth methods they planned to use in 2009. As many publications like marketingcharts.com and directmag.com can attest, many marketers are focusing on tactics that other marketers say aren’t worth the time.
As Ken Magill boiled it down in his newsletter yesterday: “Thirty two percent of marketers either rarely or never track the performance of their e-mail names by source...The troublesome statistic means almost a third of e-mail marketers could be throwing money away on bad sources of e-mail names. Moreover, bad list sources can lead to garbage addresses being introduced into marketers’ house files resulting in deliverability problems.”
In my own words, and as reported by marketers around the globe, the best way to grow your list often isn’t the fastest. Rather, it is subscriber by subscriber in a conversation that is initiated by the subscriber in the first place. Some might call this true opt-in. We call this Subscribers Rule! If you aren’t familiar, head on over to subscribersrule.com. It is more than a philosophy, it is a directive that marketers in 2009 need to follow to be successful. It is the recognition (in some cases resignation) that the subscriber is in control. With all of the din created by 20,467 marketing messages a week, consumers can’t take it all in.
Subscribers rule, a concept in list growth and profiling based on subscriber intent and initiation, says it all. Funny thing is, many marketers still won’t believe this study. They’ll continue to focus on quantity rather than quality of names. To them I say, please read what 351 other marketers say the best way is to grow your email list.
We have worked with a number of customers on understanding which segments of their email database are most engaged and why. As I've mentioned previously, often the unengaged portion not only are a drag to your ROI, but they can cause deliverability issues. Subscriber segments that joined your opt-in database over a year ago, but haven't opened or clicked, could be especially problematic since there is a direct correlation between complaint rates and age (time since opt-in). When complaint rates go up, deliverability rates go down.
However, the solution is not as simple as cutting or reopting subscribers in after 6 or 12 months. It could be that drastic, especially if your deliverability reputation is already in the tank. But, your actions could be as simple as reducing frequency, changing content, or finding the "hidden but engaged" segments I recently wrote about in the Email Experience blog.
As I wrote there, here's what I recommend:
"First, rather than automatically re-opting in unengaged subscribers or discarding them from your list, try reducing frequency. A recent test of ours showed we were able to get 4 times the number of subscribers to reengage by reducing from weekly to monthly mailings when compared to sending a single re-optin campaign.
Second, entice your offline-only shoppers to use a coupon or other tracking code that will help them identify themselves.
Finally, provide a number of ways that recipients can share their emails with their friends – either standard viral links or via new technologies allowing sharing with social networks."
For the latter, you might want to try our new Social Forward solution we're introducing to our customers via our Innovations Lab on May 1st, and will be rolling out in our summer release.
However, the solution is not as simple as cutting or reopting subscribers in after 6 or 12 months. It could be that drastic, especially if your deliverability reputation is already in the tank. But, your actions could be as simple as reducing frequency, changing content, or finding the "hidden but engaged" segments I recently wrote about in the Email Experience blog.
As I wrote there, here's what I recommend:
"First, rather than automatically re-opting in unengaged subscribers or discarding them from your list, try reducing frequency. A recent test of ours showed we were able to get 4 times the number of subscribers to reengage by reducing from weekly to monthly mailings when compared to sending a single re-optin campaign.
Second, entice your offline-only shoppers to use a coupon or other tracking code that will help them identify themselves.
Finally, provide a number of ways that recipients can share their emails with their friends – either standard viral links or via new technologies allowing sharing with social networks."
For the latter, you might want to try our new Social Forward solution we're introducing to our customers via our Innovations Lab on May 1st, and will be rolling out in our summer release.
Most marketers put little thought into what “from address” they should use for their email campaigns. Crazy isn’t it? That would be like a direct mail marketer sending a catalog with no visible brand or address on the outside of the catalog.
Whereas much thought has been put into the “right side” of the from address (the part after the @ sign), not enough thought seems to go into the “left side” of the @ sign. This isn’t surprising, however, since the right side of the email is the domain name, which is the focus of email authentication. Maybe the whole issue here is that the “from address” is typically driven by the tech team and the marketer needs to pick his battles. However, I think its worth your time -- I’ve seen just a few tweaks to a “from address” make a big impact on response.
So how do you pick the best “from address” for your email campaigns? There is no hard and fast rule here, but there are some things to think about.
1. Match the brand, subsidiary or publication (e.g. - stockpicks@, dailynews@, tripspecials@). All of those are friendlier and more recognizable than a non-descriptive “info@” or a no-no “no-reply@”.
Take it from ExactTarget Senior Strategist, Nate Romance, who says “From what I've seen, most companies do well when the left side of the from address is as specific to the publication as possible, even getting down to the type of communication, like ealerts@, estatements@, balancenotification@.” Thanks Nate.
2. Echo the source or domain from where the address was captured. If it is for a specific opt-in or contest, consider communicating that in the “from address.” For example, if you captured opt-ins via a super-bowl contest you might try: superbowl@brand.com.
3. Consider repeating the domain exactly. That certainly helps remove any ambiguity as to whom the message is from. For example, brand@brand.com.
This may seem silly, but we tested on a few occasions and found it had a higher open rate and lower complaint rate than "info@."
Remember, this is your outside of the envelope. Use the space wisely.
Today we're proud to host a client-only webinar titled "Landing Page Optimization Clinic: Rx for your ROI." The webinar is done in concert with MarketingExperiments, experts in online testing and optimization.
Our guest speaker is Jimmy Ellis, Director of Optimization Research at MarketingExperiments. Jimmy has conducted and analyzed more than 300 experiments and specializes in optimization research, search engine marketing and email marketing strategies.
Together we'll address how marketers can get the most out of their email campaigns by no longer just linking to their home page. Landing pages that are on brand and on message can drastically improve the response rates of an email campaign. Plus, using key optimization techniques to reduce visitor anxiety and increase the incentives and value proposition, marketers can further optimize their efforts.
Several hundred of our customers use our landing page software today to create and optimize personal landing pages. Perhaps one of them should be you!
Our guest speaker is Jimmy Ellis, Director of Optimization Research at MarketingExperiments. Jimmy has conducted and analyzed more than 300 experiments and specializes in optimization research, search engine marketing and email marketing strategies.
Together we'll address how marketers can get the most out of their email campaigns by no longer just linking to their home page. Landing pages that are on brand and on message can drastically improve the response rates of an email campaign. Plus, using key optimization techniques to reduce visitor anxiety and increase the incentives and value proposition, marketers can further optimize their efforts.
Several hundred of our customers use our landing page software today to create and optimize personal landing pages. Perhaps one of them should be you!
Given that social networks like MySpace rely on email to connect with users and pull then back to the network, it wouldn’t surprise me if reports are true that MySpace is in the process of launching a branded webmail product. The article in TechCrunch today mentioned that “The company has been reassigning internal email addresses (employeename@myspace.com) to a new domain name (@myspace-inc.com), which is exactly what Yahoo and others did when launching webmail services.”
The article went on to say, “It doesn’t seem like much, but this is as good as confirmation that we’ll be seeing MySpace launching a full webmail product in the near future.”
This could be a good thing for marketers as it puts them one step closer to the growing use social networks. Marketers are still trying to crack the code of how to communicate in this highly personal and private space. Understanding the sensitivities is likely the best place to start.
Our 2008 Channel Preference Survey showed that all age groups are more accepting of permission-based promotional messaging via email than via social networks. While 72% of the respondents said that receiving permission-based promotions via email is acceptable or highly acceptable (giving it a 4 or 5 on a 5 point “acceptability scale”), only 27% of respondents said they’d feel comfortable receiving permission-based promotional messages via their social network.
Back in February, I called Email Marketing and Social Networks a marriage made in heaven. Are they? I think they are. We all just need to take a breath or two before crashing the party. Tools like ShareThis! help us get invited in. Without that, perhaps a branded webmail app from the social networks will help.
In December of '08 I posted a blog called "When Daily Email Frequency Makes Sense." In it I argued that daily frequency makes sense only if you either set the expectation up front that you will email someone daily (if they opt-in), and that you can truly add value daily.
I wrote: "When does daily email make sense? It makes sense when it is what the user asks for and when it meets their needs. When doesn’t it make sense? Daily frequency without a subscriber’s specific opt-in to this frequency makes no sense at all. I’ve seen retailers kill their open and click metrics by over-mailing. Ultimately they destroy the trust of their subscribers in the process. To mail daily, you have to find the fanatics that get giddy when they hear from you, and let them raise their hand and ask for daily emails."
A comment came in that said: "I don't agree. I don't think a subscribers specific opt-in or not makes any difference. The issue surely whether or not the message is relevant, timely and pertinent to them."
While I agree that relevance is of great importance when sending email, permission must take place first. If you assume "hey, I've got great content that subscribers will want each day because it is so relevant to their needs," then you are making the decision for them rather than allowing them to make their own frequency decision. Any time you assume, you know what happens to U and Me. The key is to let each user decide what content, channel and frequency meets their needs. Their engagement or non-engagement is the ultimate bar, but first comes the raised hand of permission.
I wrote: "When does daily email make sense? It makes sense when it is what the user asks for and when it meets their needs. When doesn’t it make sense? Daily frequency without a subscriber’s specific opt-in to this frequency makes no sense at all. I’ve seen retailers kill their open and click metrics by over-mailing. Ultimately they destroy the trust of their subscribers in the process. To mail daily, you have to find the fanatics that get giddy when they hear from you, and let them raise their hand and ask for daily emails."
A comment came in that said: "I don't agree. I don't think a subscribers specific opt-in or not makes any difference. The issue surely whether or not the message is relevant, timely and pertinent to them."
While I agree that relevance is of great importance when sending email, permission must take place first. If you assume "hey, I've got great content that subscribers will want each day because it is so relevant to their needs," then you are making the decision for them rather than allowing them to make their own frequency decision. Any time you assume, you know what happens to U and Me. The key is to let each user decide what content, channel and frequency meets their needs. Their engagement or non-engagement is the ultimate bar, but first comes the raised hand of permission.
eMarketer listed a story today titled “Social Nets and Blogs More Popular than Email.” If that is true, it still misses the point. First, social networks rely on email to update users, when changes happen, and when a user writes on a wall. Therefore, nearly 100% of social network users are also email users. Second, for most people, their messaging and marketing preferences are different. Our 2008 Channel Preference Survey showed that though users are engaged in social networks, blogs, and texting, they hold those media to be the most personal of all and say they don’t want to be bothered by most marketers there.
Opt-ins to email is nearly ubiquitous while social marketing lags. Our research showed that 95% of internet users over 15 have provided permission to a company to send them promotions via email, vs. just 4% for social networks.
The strength between the two is really their synergy. Marketers need to look for ways to leverage what each do well. Email is the greatest marketing vehicle of all time for customizing content person by person. Social networks have an unprecedented ability to connect like-minded individuals. The power of the two is undeniable….which is why we continue to develop ways to tie the two together. Our latest efforts are highlighted in our integration with ShareThis!
Opt-ins to email is nearly ubiquitous while social marketing lags. Our research showed that 95% of internet users over 15 have provided permission to a company to send them promotions via email, vs. just 4% for social networks.
The strength between the two is really their synergy. Marketers need to look for ways to leverage what each do well. Email is the greatest marketing vehicle of all time for customizing content person by person. Social networks have an unprecedented ability to connect like-minded individuals. The power of the two is undeniable….which is why we continue to develop ways to tie the two together. Our latest efforts are highlighted in our integration with ShareThis!
Visibility magazine runs an article of mine this month titled "5 Ways to Kill Your Email Deliverability." In it I touch on my take of the 5 main missteps a company can make that can just kill their email program.
These include:
Misstep #1: Cheating on Permission
Misstep #2: Opt-out Email Appending
Misstep #3: Buying a List
Misstep #4: Assuming More is Better
Misstep #5: Abusing a Subscriber’s Trust
Read the article and do what George Costanza did to change his success. Since spamming isn't working, do the exact opposite.
Chip
These include:
Misstep #1: Cheating on Permission
Misstep #2: Opt-out Email Appending
Misstep #3: Buying a List
Misstep #4: Assuming More is Better
Misstep #5: Abusing a Subscriber’s Trust
Read the article and do what George Costanza did to change his success. Since spamming isn't working, do the exact opposite.
Chip
I received an email from Amazon this week touting women’s shoes by Marc Jacobs. The subject line of the email was: “Marc by Marc Jacobs: Have the New Spring Collection Tomorrow with Overnight Shipping” This would have been great to get free shipping, with the exception of the fact that I don’t wear pumps, or “Ballerina Flats.”
Hold your wise cracks please. ;-)
I often think of Amazon’s email as one of the more targeted, accurate and restrained program out there. Since I buy marketing books, they often offer me more marketing books. That’s a great example of using my purchase behavior and their collaborative filtering technology to present me with offers they have good reason to think I might buy. It works too. Amazon has probably received more of my repurchase dollars than any other retailer.
They have sophistication to their engine, clearly. For example, I buy a strange array of music from Pat Metheny to Radiohead to Phish, yet they seem to be able to discern my music tastes, or at least their offers are always appealing. They either sell me deeper catalog for a certain artist, or leverage the “customers that bought Pat Metheny Group “Still Life Talking” also bought Wes Montgomery. Both are effective because they appeal to my stated interests (in that I’ve acted upon them and they observed these preferences in my purchase activity).
In a silo, however, behavioral or purchase analysis can go wrong if it isn’t married with other data. I’ve bought gifts at Amazon for my wife before, but it certainly would have helped them to know (or pay attention to) the fact that I’m male when they sent me the spring shoes offer. Maybe it was an error, but I actually may have clicked if instead of seeing an array of open-toed and thong sandals I was presented with a loafer, tennis shoe or golf shoe.
Hold your wise cracks please. ;-)
I often think of Amazon’s email as one of the more targeted, accurate and restrained program out there. Since I buy marketing books, they often offer me more marketing books. That’s a great example of using my purchase behavior and their collaborative filtering technology to present me with offers they have good reason to think I might buy. It works too. Amazon has probably received more of my repurchase dollars than any other retailer.
They have sophistication to their engine, clearly. For example, I buy a strange array of music from Pat Metheny to Radiohead to Phish, yet they seem to be able to discern my music tastes, or at least their offers are always appealing. They either sell me deeper catalog for a certain artist, or leverage the “customers that bought Pat Metheny Group “Still Life Talking” also bought Wes Montgomery. Both are effective because they appeal to my stated interests (in that I’ve acted upon them and they observed these preferences in my purchase activity).
In a silo, however, behavioral or purchase analysis can go wrong if it isn’t married with other data. I’ve bought gifts at Amazon for my wife before, but it certainly would have helped them to know (or pay attention to) the fact that I’m male when they sent me the spring shoes offer. Maybe it was an error, but I actually may have clicked if instead of seeing an array of open-toed and thong sandals I was presented with a loafer, tennis shoe or golf shoe.
The recent privacy uproar regarding Facebook’s privacy policy changes are yet another example of the increasing power of the subscriber. Subscribers rule not only the world of email, but also social networks. Their ability connect with each other and band together via social networks is something the world hasn’t seen since a band of villagers hunted Frankenstein wielding torches and pitchforks.
After realizing they stepped in it, and that the mob had realized it, Mark Zuckerberg blogged on the privacy misstep, and their efforts to change it. I think he handled it quite well, and in his blog he closes by saying, “We're at an interesting point in the development of the open online world where these issues are being worked out. It's difficult terrain to navigate and we're going to make some missteps, but as the leading service for sharing information we take these issues and our responsibility to help resolve them very seriously. This is a big focus for us this year, and I'll post some more thoughts on openness and these other issues soon.”
I think he realizes the importance of user privacy, and basically the language describing their policies didn’t reflect their intentions. The Frankenstein Mr. Zuckerberg developed has found a way to challenge its maker and wield its collective power.
In his presentation this week to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association titled, Inbox Insanity: The Future of Email Marketing, ExactTarget’s VP of Marketing, Jeff Rohrs, set the stage with a review of social media since the use of stone-age hieroglyphics. Though we have gone from a single cave wall to an array of 23+ inboxes (counting work email, multiple home email accounts, Twitter, home phone, cell phone, Facebook, etc.) the control of the conversation is shifting more toward the user. We’ve empowered the masses, and we’ve better treat them right or risk being scorched by a torch or poked by a pitchfork.
After realizing they stepped in it, and that the mob had realized it, Mark Zuckerberg blogged on the privacy misstep, and their efforts to change it. I think he handled it quite well, and in his blog he closes by saying, “We're at an interesting point in the development of the open online world where these issues are being worked out. It's difficult terrain to navigate and we're going to make some missteps, but as the leading service for sharing information we take these issues and our responsibility to help resolve them very seriously. This is a big focus for us this year, and I'll post some more thoughts on openness and these other issues soon.”
I think he realizes the importance of user privacy, and basically the language describing their policies didn’t reflect their intentions. The Frankenstein Mr. Zuckerberg developed has found a way to challenge its maker and wield its collective power.
In his presentation this week to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association titled, Inbox Insanity: The Future of Email Marketing, ExactTarget’s VP of Marketing, Jeff Rohrs, set the stage with a review of social media since the use of stone-age hieroglyphics. Though we have gone from a single cave wall to an array of 23+ inboxes (counting work email, multiple home email accounts, Twitter, home phone, cell phone, Facebook, etc.) the control of the conversation is shifting more toward the user. We’ve empowered the masses, and we’ve better treat them right or risk being scorched by a torch or poked by a pitchfork.
The Enterprise Email Marketing whitepaper that ExactTarget first produced back in early 2004, soon after the United States CAN-SPAM Act became law focused on enterprise compliance and control of email. It armed marketers with information on best practices regarding CAN-SPAM as well as brand protection and deliverability effectiveness…not just for marketing emails, but division by division, subsidiary by subsidiary across an entire company.
CAN-SPAM made us all sit up in our seats and take notice of the array of different silos from which our organizations send email. Some questions many organizations posed at the time were: Are all of our divisions compliant with CAN-SPAM and other international email laws? How do we manage unsubscribe requests in each silo, and how do we process them in 10 business days? How do we protect our brand image and ensure we don’t spam people and destroy our deliverability reputation?
In 2009 those are still relevant and good housekeeping questions; questions that are especially important for the privacy officers and CMO’s of larger organizations to ask themselves, and to know the answers.
I’ve seen a number of recent articles citing the fact that many companies still struggle with the basics of email, and old email myths persist – especially at the C-level. This causes friction between the best practices that the privacy and email marketing manager want to pursue, and those that the business development executives believe are necessary, or standard business practices. For some reason, with regards to email, I’ve heard a number of those who rely on old media thinking say things like, “others send unsolicited email and it makes it to my inbox, so why shouldn’t I.” There is this impression that since it is “done” that it is acceptable. Legitimate brands can’t rely on spam to get it done. It won’t. In fact, it will work against them.
Friction with executives and ignorance of laws and best practices among the rank and file is why our whitepaper from 2004 is still relevant. Enterprise compliance and control is a real need. Big companies need the freedom to deploy email to ten, one-hundred or one-thousand divisions while ensuring their brands are protected from the fall-out of a just one division sending unsolicited email or from running afoul of CAN-SPAM by sending to an unsubscribed email address. Our Enterprise edition helps administrators and privacy officers breathe easier by providing a solution to these problems.
CAN-SPAM made us all sit up in our seats and take notice of the array of different silos from which our organizations send email. Some questions many organizations posed at the time were: Are all of our divisions compliant with CAN-SPAM and other international email laws? How do we manage unsubscribe requests in each silo, and how do we process them in 10 business days? How do we protect our brand image and ensure we don’t spam people and destroy our deliverability reputation?
In 2009 those are still relevant and good housekeeping questions; questions that are especially important for the privacy officers and CMO’s of larger organizations to ask themselves, and to know the answers.
I’ve seen a number of recent articles citing the fact that many companies still struggle with the basics of email, and old email myths persist – especially at the C-level. This causes friction between the best practices that the privacy and email marketing manager want to pursue, and those that the business development executives believe are necessary, or standard business practices. For some reason, with regards to email, I’ve heard a number of those who rely on old media thinking say things like, “others send unsolicited email and it makes it to my inbox, so why shouldn’t I.” There is this impression that since it is “done” that it is acceptable. Legitimate brands can’t rely on spam to get it done. It won’t. In fact, it will work against them.
Friction with executives and ignorance of laws and best practices among the rank and file is why our whitepaper from 2004 is still relevant. Enterprise compliance and control is a real need. Big companies need the freedom to deploy email to ten, one-hundred or one-thousand divisions while ensuring their brands are protected from the fall-out of a just one division sending unsolicited email or from running afoul of CAN-SPAM by sending to an unsubscribed email address. Our Enterprise edition helps administrators and privacy officers breathe easier by providing a solution to these problems.
I seem to encounter rain in the desert. Maybe winter follows me? I’m here in Scottsdale, AZ for the Email Evolution Conference and if it wasn’t enough to fly in during a rainstorm, this morning I was greeted by frost. Why leave Minnesota!?
Anyway, day one of the EEC was a success. The panel I moderated titled: “Email Deliverability Success is a Strategy….Not a Game, and Not an Accident” was a blast, and I think well received by the audience. We had standing-room-only in a room jam-packed with marketers hoping to learn some new nuggets on optimizing their email deliverability. We focused on the 7 steps to developing an email deliverability strategy. I summarized this topic in an article eM+C a few weeks back.
Perhaps it was the opening keynote with DMA’s Ramesh Ratan, Jeanniey Mullen of Zinio and Stan Rapp, founder of Rapp Collins, that got people in the mood to hear more about the topic. Ramesh mentioned DMA data that showed email was the only item that wasn’t cut or reduced from marketers' budget plans for 2009. Planned spending is flat from '08 to '09 at $700MM. Plus, Jeanniey mentioned that “Deliverability is still the most important technical element of a successful email, and that 70% of the “best practices” from 2006 are now wrong.” How’s that for a cool, dynamic industry!?
Stan went on to deliver the most compelling case for email marketing I have ever witnessed in his keynote titled, “It’s the e-Conomy Stupid.” For me, it was something about the fact that Stan brings an amazing history and objectivity to the topic. And, Stan is convinced. In his words, “Email is the tightest link ever forged between buyer and seller. Email is the heart beat of the internet. Emailers: you don’t know how good you are.”
Why all the praise? Stan knows the ad business. Ad’s just don’t work as well any longer, but email works REALLY well, with an ROI far ahead of other channels. He cited the misallocation of ad spend that continues on Madison Avenue and big brands which dedicate over $185 billion in annual advertising budgets, yet dedicate only $1 billion to email.
I agree. To me the disconnect is shocking – maybe criminal. The ROI of email is the highest of all marketing vehicles, yet it only gets 1/185th of the spend. Let’s go people. Let’s take back Madison Avenue!
Anyway, day one of the EEC was a success. The panel I moderated titled: “Email Deliverability Success is a Strategy….Not a Game, and Not an Accident” was a blast, and I think well received by the audience. We had standing-room-only in a room jam-packed with marketers hoping to learn some new nuggets on optimizing their email deliverability. We focused on the 7 steps to developing an email deliverability strategy. I summarized this topic in an article eM+C a few weeks back.
Perhaps it was the opening keynote with DMA’s Ramesh Ratan, Jeanniey Mullen of Zinio and Stan Rapp, founder of Rapp Collins, that got people in the mood to hear more about the topic. Ramesh mentioned DMA data that showed email was the only item that wasn’t cut or reduced from marketers' budget plans for 2009. Planned spending is flat from '08 to '09 at $700MM. Plus, Jeanniey mentioned that “Deliverability is still the most important technical element of a successful email, and that 70% of the “best practices” from 2006 are now wrong.” How’s that for a cool, dynamic industry!?
Stan went on to deliver the most compelling case for email marketing I have ever witnessed in his keynote titled, “It’s the e-Conomy Stupid.” For me, it was something about the fact that Stan brings an amazing history and objectivity to the topic. And, Stan is convinced. In his words, “Email is the tightest link ever forged between buyer and seller. Email is the heart beat of the internet. Emailers: you don’t know how good you are.”
Why all the praise? Stan knows the ad business. Ad’s just don’t work as well any longer, but email works REALLY well, with an ROI far ahead of other channels. He cited the misallocation of ad spend that continues on Madison Avenue and big brands which dedicate over $185 billion in annual advertising budgets, yet dedicate only $1 billion to email.
I agree. To me the disconnect is shocking – maybe criminal. The ROI of email is the highest of all marketing vehicles, yet it only gets 1/185th of the spend. Let’s go people. Let’s take back Madison Avenue!
In a ClickZ article this week tiled, Bye-Bye Email?, Jeanniey Mullen of Zinio, touches on the reality that email is far from dead since it is connected to all of us, and continues to connect us via social media. So when social media seems to be dominating the airways these days, email marketers should take heart knowing that email is still the connective tissue.
Jeanniey points out: “Just because lots of people tweet, update statuses, and write on walls, doesn't mean they won't use e-mail anymore. When Post-it notes came out, people didn't stop writing letters.” So true.
Twitter is immediate, yes, but only 160 characters is a bit limiting. Yet, I tweet. Not enough though, since Twitter and I have an on-again-off-again relationship. I am working on making a commitment though. When I do date Twitter, however, I am typically pulled there by email. It kind of asks me out on a date, and if it didn’t, I’d just be sittin’ home emailing.
Facebook relies on that “push” too. I’m not one that has Facebook as my home page. I prefer the news, or a commonly used log-in page. Boring, yes, but functional. I might pop in to Facebook to update my status or send a message or too, but more than 50% of the time I am pulled there by an email.
The connection of email marketing and social media is tangible now, and it is a exciting connection due to the compelling power of referrals. Make an impression on one sole, and they might pass it on to their network of 100+. That’s why we’ve partnered with ShareThis!
In their own words, “ShareThis is the sharing network that makes it simple and easy to share any online content. With the click of a button on a webpage or browser plug- in, ShareThis allows users to seamlessly access their contacts and networks from anywhere online and share the content through email, IM, Facebook, Digg, mobile SMS, etc. without ever leaving the current page.”
Email marketing is still alive. Social media is thriving. A marriage made in heaven.
Jeanniey points out: “Just because lots of people tweet, update statuses, and write on walls, doesn't mean they won't use e-mail anymore. When Post-it notes came out, people didn't stop writing letters.” So true.
Twitter is immediate, yes, but only 160 characters is a bit limiting. Yet, I tweet. Not enough though, since Twitter and I have an on-again-off-again relationship. I am working on making a commitment though. When I do date Twitter, however, I am typically pulled there by email. It kind of asks me out on a date, and if it didn’t, I’d just be sittin’ home emailing.
Facebook relies on that “push” too. I’m not one that has Facebook as my home page. I prefer the news, or a commonly used log-in page. Boring, yes, but functional. I might pop in to Facebook to update my status or send a message or too, but more than 50% of the time I am pulled there by an email.
The connection of email marketing and social media is tangible now, and it is a exciting connection due to the compelling power of referrals. Make an impression on one sole, and they might pass it on to their network of 100+. That’s why we’ve partnered with ShareThis!
In their own words, “ShareThis is the sharing network that makes it simple and easy to share any online content. With the click of a button on a webpage or browser plug- in, ShareThis allows users to seamlessly access their contacts and networks from anywhere online and share the content through email, IM, Facebook, Digg, mobile SMS, etc. without ever leaving the current page.”
Email marketing is still alive. Social media is thriving. A marriage made in heaven.
On the heels of our discussion on the effectiveness in email, comes a study from Comscore showing a growth in the use of video in a retail setting. According to the story in eMarketer titled, "Retailers Take Note: Video Sells!" there was a significant increase in the past year for online shoppers that watched a video. Comscore reported a 40% increase in unique video views in a single year. During this same time frame the traffic to these web sites only grew 4%. “Among the benefits of videos touted by Web retailers are a lower number of abandoned shopping carts, reduced return rates and higher sales,” says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report."
The report also states that 43% of retailers plan to add video to their site this year, more than any other advanced feature.
Emails we send with links to video often see the video link yielding the top number of clicks. People like video. Will they like it when it is already running when they open their email? You'll have to test it. We are. As I mentioned yesterday, I think video makes sense when selling a complex product, or one that is much more compelling when shown in use. There must be a reason the George Foreman Grill ran on TV for so many years, no?
The report also states that 43% of retailers plan to add video to their site this year, more than any other advanced feature.
Emails we send with links to video often see the video link yielding the top number of clicks. People like video. Will they like it when it is already running when they open their email? You'll have to test it. We are. As I mentioned yesterday, I think video makes sense when selling a complex product, or one that is much more compelling when shown in use. There must be a reason the George Foreman Grill ran on TV for so many years, no?
I was reflecting on the advice of some of my esteemed colleagues who are both experts in their own right in email marketing. First is Ryan Warren who leads our solutions consulting team and knows quite a bit about email marketing, design, advertising and database marketing. Ryan posted a blog last week titled: “Forget Using Video in Email.”
Right after the blog was first posted on 1/16/09 it quickly yielded a few comments – all of them disagreeing with Ryan’s premise. Ryan went on to clarify his position, which is essentially that video and email aren’t a good fit due to file size, software protection interruptions, and lack of ability to measure “engagement” when someone is just viewing a video in an email. Ryan’s point (which I mostly buy into) is that it is better to “link” to a video in a landing page that is armed with web analytics than to run the video in the email body. His reasoning is that a click to a video would indicate a higher level of customer engagement in your campaign, whereas you wouldn’t know how much of a video (if any of it) had been watched while the email was open.
Personally, however, I can think of a number of reasons why you’d like to get the video rolling when an email is opened. The video can drive engagement, not just be the recipient of it. In fact, we already know it works as an engagement device since we have a number of users that get more clicks from web pages with videos than they do for static text or HTML pages.
Yet, Ryan makes a compelling case. And he is likely very right in some cases, for some set of brands or consumers. But, he could be wrong for yours, which is all that is relevant to you. Ultimately email (direct marketing in general) is about testing.
See Morgan Stewart’s post if you want to get a perspective on the concept of “Best Practices.” From this post:
“I like the definition on Wikipedia that basically says a "best practice" is a technique, method or process which is:
1) more effective, more efficient, or both
2) than any other technique, method, process, etc.
3) based on repeatable procedures over time for large numbers of people”
However, above and beyond any argument we have on the effectiveness of video in email, actually running a video in email has had its set of technical challenges in the past. As I learned from our partner Goodmail Systems, this could all be changing. They plan to introduce a Certified Video product this year that leverages their agreements with ISPs to run video right in the body of the email.
Stay tuned for some head to head tests.
Right after the blog was first posted on 1/16/09 it quickly yielded a few comments – all of them disagreeing with Ryan’s premise. Ryan went on to clarify his position, which is essentially that video and email aren’t a good fit due to file size, software protection interruptions, and lack of ability to measure “engagement” when someone is just viewing a video in an email. Ryan’s point (which I mostly buy into) is that it is better to “link” to a video in a landing page that is armed with web analytics than to run the video in the email body. His reasoning is that a click to a video would indicate a higher level of customer engagement in your campaign, whereas you wouldn’t know how much of a video (if any of it) had been watched while the email was open.
Personally, however, I can think of a number of reasons why you’d like to get the video rolling when an email is opened. The video can drive engagement, not just be the recipient of it. In fact, we already know it works as an engagement device since we have a number of users that get more clicks from web pages with videos than they do for static text or HTML pages.
Yet, Ryan makes a compelling case. And he is likely very right in some cases, for some set of brands or consumers. But, he could be wrong for yours, which is all that is relevant to you. Ultimately email (direct marketing in general) is about testing.
See Morgan Stewart’s post if you want to get a perspective on the concept of “Best Practices.” From this post:
“I like the definition on Wikipedia that basically says a "best practice" is a technique, method or process which is:
1) more effective, more efficient, or both
2) than any other technique, method, process, etc.
3) based on repeatable procedures over time for large numbers of people”
However, above and beyond any argument we have on the effectiveness of video in email, actually running a video in email has had its set of technical challenges in the past. As I learned from our partner Goodmail Systems, this could all be changing. They plan to introduce a Certified Video product this year that leverages their agreements with ISPs to run video right in the body of the email.
Stay tuned for some head to head tests.
ExactTarget Feed
Powered by Compendium Blogware