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Consumer Email Marketing

ExactTarget and Forrester Research Report

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Amanda Cross
Did you know that ExactTarget has sponsored a research report into consumer marketing preferences? You can download it for free from our website.

ExactTarget and Forrester Research ReportWhile the report promises to help you "Eliminate guesswork — this research provides you with concrete facts about how your subscribers want to hear from you, and how important these preferences are to your marketing success," you have to know your own customers and their particular wants and needs. I don't think anyone would assume that customers of a hospital would necessarily have the same channel preferences as customers of a chocolate maker.

But even if the report doesn't give you the answers to all your questions, it'll help you to see the trends and to think about what questions you want to ask yourself.

Mike Sachoff at WebProNews shared the report with his readers, and they found it useful. I bet you will too.


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Consumer Email Marketing: What NOT To Do When Sending Offers

Tuesday, July 7, 2009 by Angela Khan
I recently came back from an East Coast 4th of July trip that left a terribly bad taste for a specific airline in my mouth.  My husband had upgraded us to first class and given up 15,000 reward points only to find out that the airline forgot to upgrade me.  Since all three connecting flights were sold out, the only option left was for him to give away his first class seat on all flights for the opportunity to sit with me in coach.  And of course, the airline was unwilling (or unable) to give the points back.  So, disappointed with one airline, I was at least relieved to know it's not the airline I normally fly with.

However, the airline I do fly with twice a month sent me an offer today that looked like this - "Starting July 6, 2009 the first 5,000 customers will receive a 20% discount with the purchase of 25,000 miles or more."  Now, I am trying to figure out why that offer was sent to me.  Is a 20% discount off an airline ticket really enough to encourage me to buy 25,000 miles?  Note:  25,000 miles cost roughly $500 with this particular airline plus an additional $30 service fee.


Bottom line, when you are sending to a list, make sure you are always sending an offer that appeals to your audience.  Do not offend the consumer's intelligence on the value of the offer.  Or, you may end up with no conversion and no return customer.
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Consumer Email Marketing: Creative Limited Promos for with Social Media

Monday, April 13, 2009 by Angela Khan
Avelle has put a creative spin on limited 1 day offer promotions on accessories.  Each day, they will announce a "luxe find of the day" where you have an opportunity to rent an item at a special promotional price but must act on the offer within 24 hours.  Through the use of RSS feeds, they'll be able to capture who has subscribed to the feeds and identify who from those subscriptions is redeeming the offer.  Another great example of how easy it is to use social media to drive conversions!

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IBM to Buy Outsource Email Provider Outblaze

Friday, January 16, 2009 by Al Iverson

If you didn't already know, Outblaze is one of the top tier webmail providers out there. Mail.com & email.com are just two of the 1500+ domains hosted by Outblaze, and Outblaze typically ranks in the top ten when ranking ISPs in any large US consumer email list.

CNN reported on Thursday that IBM has announced its intent to buy Outblaze. IBM states that Outblaze's email platform will become part of IBM Lotus' Project "Bluehouse." "Bluehouse" is IBM's online social networking and collaboration service designed for business.

I'm not sure what this means for list managers and email service providers. Time will tell.

Back when I had to deal with IBM on various anti-abuse related issues, they were often non-responsive and seemed to suffer from a malaise typical of a really large corporation. That was a long time ago, though, and if the smart anti-spam folks at Outblaze come over to IBM and continue to do the good job that they're doing currently, then perhaps the impact to folks like us, and the 'net in general, will be neutral or even positive.

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