Email Campaign Design

Email Design Tip of the Week: Social Media in Email

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Andrea Smith

Should social media be used in email? Sure! But only if it makes sense for your audience. Decide if you will link to your existing social presence, enable content sharing, or both. Let’s take a quick closer look:

Link to your existing social presence. This can include a simple text or graphic link to your Facebook page, Twitter feed or LinkedIn site, driving traffic to your social presence. As with your email program and website, you’re simply encouraging interaction with your brand.
Enable content sharing through ExactTarget’s “Social Forward” integration. In other words, share an “item” with your network. This can include sharing the entire email or just a section of content. In doing this, you are allowing your subscriber base to evangelize your brand on your behalf. In the Florida Power and Light newsletter below, you have the option to share “Cold Weather Tips”.
Plan, test, repeat! While social media can bring value to your email program, make sure you’re thinking through the bigger picture. Social media is definitely an emerging technology that will someday be a part of standard brand practices, so it makes sense to give it a chance. Be sure to plan and design with the needs of your customers and subscribers in mind, then test, evaluate and repeat!

For more design advice and thoughts on social media, add @ETDesign to your Twitter feed and check out “Design Tip of the Week: Integrating Twitter to Your Email Strategy“.

Twitterview: Engagement. Delivered.

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio

Our own Chip House, VP of Industry & Relationship Marketing virtually sat down with me for our latest Twitterview on 2010 Resolutions. We talked deliverability and how marketers should be more engaging in 2010:

ExactTarget: @cehouse Your resolution is Engage Your Subscribers. What’s the easiest thing a marketer can do to engage? #ET2010

Chip House: The answer seems almost too easy. Treat them like you know them and you care about "what they think" as individuals. #ET2010

Chip House: the same things marketers do to drive high ROI (opt-in, branding, relevance, frequency) also drive engagement

ExactTarget: How does engagement affect email deliverability?

Chip House: Positive and negative engagement are monitored by ISPs. Complaints are "negative" engagement, and clicks are positive

Chip House: Engagement also comes in "implicit" ways -- meaning, if your emails aren't ever opened, that will lower inbox rate

ExactTarget: Explain why quality always trumps quantity in deliverability.

Chip House: Marketers know of the 80/20 rule. The 20% drives your sales, but the bad apples in the 80% kill your deliverability

Chip House: So most from the print space think "email is cheap, I'll send a lot" - but, the cost of mailing deep is poor engagment

ExactTarget: The whitepaper mentions reducing sending frequency can actually help re-engage. What other factors play a part?

Chip House: Regular list hygiene to re-engage or dump unengaged subs is needed. But, just reducing frequncy has shown to work too

Chip House: The balance of engaged and active customers has to heavily outweigh the unengaged & complaints to avoid the spam folder

ExactTarget: Where should folks go if they want more information on email deliverability?

Chip House: visit the deliverability blog at ExactTarget.com for starters... other good resources are the EEC, Sherpa and more

How are you engaging your subscribers in 2010? Want more expert advice on email design, deliverability, subscriber engagement? Download 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010.

Email Design Tip of the Week: Using Google Docs for QA Management

Friday, February 19, 2010 by Tana Babcock

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!

Twitterview: Success By Email Design

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio

Feburary is unoffically Email Design Month here at ExactTarget. (Hint: If you aren't subscribed to Insight you can opt-in to our own email marketing newsletter - There will be some Email Design info coming your way this month!)

Today I was excited to have a Twitterview with ExactTarget's Justine Jordan, Manger of Design Solutions on our Email Design Twitter Account @ETDesign.

ExactTarget: @ETDesign In your resolution you challenge marketers to Design for Subscribers. Why is it not just about graphics and templates? #ET2010

Justine: Your subscribers determine your success or failure. Design with their needs in mind and they will reward you.

Justine: To design is to create a purpose/plan. Graphics are important (brand awareness, trust) but just part of the equation

ExactTarget: What is the first step for marketers to incorporate social media into their design?

Justine: Start small, have a plan. Decide if you will link to existing presence or enable content share. Design, test, repeat.

ExactTarget: Design.Test.Repeat is great advice! What do you recommend to marketers who are just starting to do email design testing?

Justine: Find out what elements drive success and focus your efforts there. Explore different ways to highlight key messages.

Justine: Make decisions based on data. Test the usual and then get creative. Left or right sidebar? Product or lifestyle image?

ExactTarget: What brands are doing a good job of creating great social experiences in their email design?

Justine: Brands that are finding ways to start conversations. Need unique ways to encourage interaction, not just clicks.

ExactTarget: Lastly, What was the most interesting takeaway from the Connections 09 Extreme Makeover Design Edition Session?

Justine: Can I quote @andy_mott? :: “Our intuition will never be as good as our ability to test.”

Justine: @ExactTarget Also, take risks, but make informed decisions. Be open to success where you didn't expect it and failure where you did #ET2010

How are you starting the conversation with your email marketing and social media strategy? Make sure to check out our 2010 Resolutions for more from our thought leaders on email design, deliverability, and subscriber engagement. And as always you can get more email design tips from ExactTarget on our blog.

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

Friday, February 5, 2010 by John Maitz

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

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

Doctype

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

Layout

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

Style Sheets

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

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

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

Float

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by David Hoang

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow us on Twitter at @ExactTarget and @ETDesign.

Happy Tweeting!

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

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Chris Studabaker

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

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

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

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

Delivery methods

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

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

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

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

Join today: Email Design Testing Webinar

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Kristina Schott

At ExactTarget, we design emails for success. Part of that process may include putting a few design variations up against each other in a test.

In September, ExactTarget hosted the Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition as a highlight to Connections '09. Read up on an overview and results here.

On January 13th, MarketingExperiments, the researchers who partnered with ExactTarget to analyze the data of the tests, will hold a webinar exploring the results.

The ExactTarget Design Solutions team will be logged in, watching the results unfold with you! We're excited to see the data of our redesigned emails analyzed by MarketingExperiments' Senior Manager of Research Partmerships, Andy Mott. Also exciting is the opportunity to hear the dulcet voice our very own Joel Book, who will be appearing as a special guest.

Register and join us to celebrate performance-driven design!

Maximize your Agency ROI: How adding science to the creative process reveals a 26% gain in email response!
Wednesday, January 13, 2009
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST

Register now!

Is Email Design Testing Really Worth It?

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Joel Book

Recently, ExactTarget partnered with MarketingExperiments to explore how marketers can use data to make smarter email creative decisions. Researchers from both companies developed experiments to test the most effective creative executions as part of a special ExactTarget email redesign competition.

On Wednesday, January 13th, join Andy Mott, Senior Manager of Research for MarketingExperiments, for a special web clinic where we will take you behind the scenes of this competition that pitted three agencies against each other to create emails for Pier 1 Imports, AAA of Ohio, and MarketingExperiments.

You’ll see “before and after” designs, and learn why you may be leaving money on the table by not testing your email and corresponding landing page.  

Register today to attend this special web clinic:

Maximize your Agency ROI: How adding science to the creative process reveals a 26% gain in email response!   

Wednesday, January 13, 2009 
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST

Email Marketing Resolutions: All About Subscribers!

Thursday, January 7, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio

We just completed the first 'Twinterview' in a series we'll be doing with some of our experts on email design, deliverability, education and research from our latest resource, Five Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010.

Here is how it went down:

ExactTarget: @jkrohrs - What’s the most important resolution for email marketers in 2010? #ET2010

jkrohrs: @ExactTarget In 2010, email marketers should resolve to actually meet their best subscribers face-to-face.

ExactTarget: You talk about customer feedback in the whitepaper, what’s the best way to get it?

jkrohrs: No "best way" for customer feedback. Seek it wherever possible. Start conversations. Meet in person. Survey.

ExactTarget: What brands do a good job of engaging customers to get feedback?

jkrohrs: Amazon, Zappos, Apple. But there's a lot to learn from local companies who depend on WOM to survive.

ExactTarget: How should everyone's favorite topic, Social Media, fit into marketers’ new year’s resolutions?

jkrohrs: Be authentic. Passionate marketers are best at social media. Not passionate about your product? Change jobs.

ExactTarget: And last but not least! How does the Subscribers Rule philosophy play into all of this?

jkrohrs: The @SubscribersRule philosophy reminds us all that consumers--subscribers--are our bosses. Serve them well.

You can check it out yourself by searching #ET2010 (where Jeff also add's some color commentary on his authentic avatar), and read more on Jeff's 2010 resolution.

Connections Extreme Makeover: Pier 1 Redesign

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Andrea Smith

Our previous blogs, Connections Extreme Makeover: AAA Ohio Redesign and Connections Extreme Makeover: MarketingExperiments Redesign covered the Design Solutions teams’ redesigns for AAA Ohio and MarketingExperiments. To finish up, we’d like to share our thoughts on our final redesign.

Pier 1 Imports is a retailer that focuses heavily on unique furniture, home décor and accessories. Based on our conversations with Pier 1, the bulk of their customer base falls around females in the 50-60 age range. High quality products are marketed through the channels of print, in-store collateral, web, and email. Though the use of email and web, Pier 1 uses these channels to drive brand recognition and encourage online browsing before driving the consumer to the store to make a purchase.   

With this in mind, the ExactTarget team took a very sophisticated and streamlined approach to the Creature Comforts email campaign, using warm, harmonious colors and existing brand elements to deliver value and increase engagement with the Pier 1 brand. Let’s break apart our strategy and check out the email:   

Preheader
Experience and testing tells us that this area of the email is very important, and can serve as a main driver to engagement. We deliver two strategic ways to view the email as a web page, forward the email, and connect via social media on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. As an added benefit, some email clients pull this teaser text into their inbox preview before the email is ever opened.   

Header
The header features the brand mark in prime email real estate and will link to the Pier 1 homepage. To the right, we’ve pulled out the three most strategic links to drive subscriber engagement based on past email performance metrics and value provided on the website. Room gallery is an important place to drive web traffic and engage the subscribers in furniture placements in different room settings. The Pier 1 Studio offers amazing design tips and ideas that will engage subscribers, and Special Values have proven to be of high interest based on past clicks and obvious savings.   

Feature
This feature uses a combination of on-brand fonts, text rendering and imagery to offer a clean look directly placed in the preview pane. This simple room shot will encourage click through to the website, focusing on a clean, simple, and sophisticated approach in line with the quality of the products offered. The design elements of line, color and quirky framing will help the Pier 1 brand stand out in the crowd.   

Body
Four products are dramatically outlined and provide a sleek way to encourage pre-shopping on the website. These products were strategically chosen from the images provided as they are highlighted in the campaign and artfully pull through the rich fall colors. Allowing subscribers to see the actual prices and pieces of furniture pulled out can help set brand expectations and encourage click through.   

Recovery Module
These three items provide even more value to the subscriber audience, giving them convenient access to savings through Pier 1 Rewards, ability to buy gift cards online, and finding a store. Metrics show that most subscribers already know where their stores are, but those that don’t can easily click through. 

 Footer
Main website navigation is important to include, but click data shows us that it does not necessarily require prime real estate in the email. Copyright, privacy, unsubscribe, and customer relations functionality are important (and some are required!) and can fall in one clean line as they are self explanatory. Disclaimers and CAN-SPAM compliant mailing address follow.

  While the results of the Makeover showed that Pier 1’s control design outperformed the redesigns in actual sales conversion, our team strove to stay true to the brand and add a new dimension to the email program that strategically reorganizes Pier 1’s offerings, allowing the true beauty and quality of the products to shine. It is highly useable and engaging, with strategic goals of boosting click-through, web traffic, and ultimately driving consumers inside the Pier 1 stores for more.

Thanks for reading some of the stories behind Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition! Look for more 1 to 1 marketing advice and Email Design Tips in our upcoming 2010 blogs.

Setting Yourself Up for Success Beyond the Holidays

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 by Shelly Griffin

Santa looked at his list, checked it twice and probably thinks that I had been naughty not nice lately...especially as it relates to blog entries. Like everyone else during the holidays, time slips away from me like grains of sand through my fingers. I can't seem to get a firm hold on anything let alone get everything done in the time allotted. This should be the time of year when we can slow down and reflect upon our lives. Refresh, regroup and reconnect.

This should also be the time when you can look at your email and 1-to-1 marketing programs - reflect, refresh and regroup - a time to ask yourself if you have all of the tools necessary to successfully execute your program.

Review your website - do you have a clear and concise way for people to subscriber to your emails? Can you find it in only a few seconds? Find more ideas here.
Review your emails - is it time for new layout or new look? Is the message clear above the fold? Check out our email design tips.
Review your content - are you delivering what you promised? Did you promise a monthly newsletter and start delivering a weekly promotional ad? Or did you do the opposite - promise emails and then just forget to send them in a timely fashion.
Review your subscribers - take a look at who is and is not opening your emails. Segment your lists and experiment with different messages. Check out this webinar on Building Better Subscriber Relationships in 2010.
Review your tracking - what are you doing with the data? Anything? Are you changing your marketing plans based on those results or are you merely filing the data away for a rainy day.
Review what's new - are you incorporating Social media into your email marketing campaigns? Have you thought about growing your email list with SMS?

Now that the reviewing is done - on to the 2010 resolutions!

Connections Extreme Makeover: MarketingExperiments Redesign

Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Kristina Schott

Our previous blog, Connections Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition Results, covered the Design Solutions teams’ redesigns for AAA Ohio, Pier 1 and MarketingExperiments. Let’s take a deep dive into the design strategy that led the MarketingExperiments’ email to increased engagement.

MarketingExperiments is a research laboratory whose researchers are tasked with discovering what really works in optimization. The communication MarketingExperiments identified for redesign was their Journal Newsletter, which features an on-demand webinar, upcoming live webinars, and live on-site training sessions. View a sample of the current newsletter.

Our main strategies in tackling this redesign were keeping our audience in mind and designing for ease of use. MarketingExperiments caters to many email-savvy marketers that need to access information quickly and easily without the turn-offs of over-marketing and distracting, unnecessary graphics. Keeping in mind the 5 stages of email viewing, we didn’t want any vital information lost when the email is delivered to the inbox with images blocked. We designed a clean, informational, academic feel with minimal images to reduce information loss, and as a result the redesign featured surprisingly graceful degradation in the images-off view. The logo stood as the only important piece of information requiring an image, and a styled alt tag will be seen on email clients that display them.

To meet MarketingExperiments’ desire for a stronger social presence, we incorporated ExactTarget’s Social Forward: Direct to Social feature after each article, allowing subscribers to share the content on top social media sites. Each button is text-rendering, using background images to create the button-look behind the text. We featured a screenshot of the main feature’s webinar with a play button to prompt the subscriber to view the webinar. The open, clean style of this email mirrors the style of the MarketingExperiments website and blog, to create a consistent, trustworthy brand experience between channels.

ExactTarget’s redesign of MarketingExperiments Journal Newsletter:

Please click on image to see full view.

ExactTarget and Smith-Harmon’s redesigns had a photo finish, ending with a performance difference of less than 2% between them. Success was determined by metrics such as opens, click-through rates, and conversions.

Next up, look for the Pier1 redesign and hear our team’s strategy.

Connections Extreme Makeover: AAA Ohio Redesign

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Anna Meier

As I kicked off last week in Connections Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition Results, our next few design blogs will focus on each of our Design Solutions teams’ redesigns for AAA Ohio, Pier 1 and Marketing Experiments.

So let’s get right to it: AAA Ohio’s Annual Membership Renewal email. AAA's current email was being sent to members annually to prompt online, phone or in-store renewals. After our first meeting with AAA, we realized that members could benefit from AAA in many life activities, which in turn fueled their customer loyalty. Thus, our “Renew Your Journey…” design was born. After brainstorming on the idea and experience of a AAA member’s journey, we saw the opportunity for a wide-format email. Yes, I said wide-format email, a.k.a. “the horizontal scroller”. Some might despise the idea of side-scrolling, others may love it, but we couldn’t know for sure without a test! And test we did.

Out of the three redesigns tested in the competition, our design outperformed the control CTR by 26% and outperformed the projected revenue of the 2nd place finisher by 4%.

The beauty in this horizontal format design is that subscribers choosing not to scroll will not miss the main message or click-through opportunity. These subscribers are still able to view the header, footer and primary call to action. Therefore, nothing is withheld from the subscriber choosing not to scroll. Instead, scrolling only adds to the email experience while revealing added benefits of membership. This format also made sense because it created brand synergy with AAA Ohio’s wide format web and print elements.

In the screenshot at right, you’ll see we optimized the preview pane view with an html text preheader linking to the AAA renewal webpage, browser view and mobile version; all elements that are visible when images are off. We added the AAA logo at left for immediate brand recognition as well as navigation to AAA’s core business segments and contact link within the header.

Our primary “Renew Your Journey” call to action is also visible within the preview pane. It is supported by three main values of membership followed by an html text button. Once the email is opened, contact information and CAN-SPAM compliant footer are included as well as the bold arrow image with instructions for scrolling.

Once subscribers choose to scroll, the photography illustrates member benefits in travel, entertainment, roadside assistance and dining as demonstrated in this screencast. A final opportunity to click-through to the renewal webpage wraps up the journey.

Overall, we were confident this design would increase subscriber engagement. The format was non traditional, but in this case made perfect sense for the concept and type of email. Stay tuned next week to learn about the Marketing Experiments redesign.

Connections Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition Results

Friday, December 4, 2009 by Anna Meier

Recently, the ExactTarget Design Solutions team competed in Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition during our annual Connections user conference. Our competition included teams at Mighty Interactive and Smith-Harmon. ExactTarget clients Pier 1, AAA Ohio and Marketing Experiments participated to have each team create an email redesign. Each design was then deployed to a subscriber segment and analyzed by Marketing Experiments to arrive at a winner based on clicks and conversions.

After weeks of preparation and anticipation, the winners were revealed. During the reveal, the Connections audience also participated by voting for their favorite design using ExactTarget text messaging.

The Results (drumroll please)...

Round 1: Pier 1 Redesign
Email: Creature Comforts Event
Audience Favorite: ExactTarget
Winner*: Mighty Interactive

Generated 86% more clicks than other competitors
Generated 25% more sales than nearest competitor

*Pier 1 control design outperformed all redesigns

Round 2: AAA Ohio Redesign
Email: Membership Renewal
Audience Favorite: ExactTarget
Winner: ExactTarget

Outperformed control CTR by 26%
Outperformed projected revenue of 2nd place by 4%

Round 3: Marketing Experiments Redesign
Email: Marketing Experiments Journal Newsletter
Audience Favorite: Smith-Harmon
Winner: Smith-Harmon

Outperformed 2nd place by < 2%
Outperformed control CTR by 26%
Outperformed control unsubscribe rate by 15.9%

See the Results
In the coming weeks, we will be featuring an in-depth blog on each of our team’s designs for Pier 1, AAA Ohio and Marketing Experiments. To view slides of the designs and results, visit 3sixty Connections 09 Resources. Congratulations and thank you to each team for their hard work and participation!

Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Gmail

Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Andrea Smith

This week we’re focusing on email rendering in Gmail. Gmail, like other web-based email clients, is constantly evolving. These updates continually change the way HTML emails are rendered. Not only do email designers need to pay special attention to Gmail, they need to be aware that their Gmail subscribers may be seeing one of two different versions of Gmail. Depending which browser and version you are using, scroll to the bottom of your account and select the “older version” link to test that version of Gmail. To revert back to the newest version, select the “newer version” link in the top right section of the account.

Below are some great tips to consider when building your email campaign in order to create the best experience possible for Gmail subscribers.  

Image Blocking - Alt Tags
 Images are blocked by default in Gmail. Gmail does display stylized “alt” tags, so add those to your design when it makes sense to help create brand synergy. 

CSS
In both versions of Gmail, CSS must be applied inline. External or embedded CSS in the head of the HTML will be stripped out.

 CSS Borders
The newer version of Gmail has difficulty rendering CSS borders in IE8. Occasionally, 1-2 pixels of white space will be added to the left or right side of the content enclosed within the border. This issue affects some designs more than others, so if you have a particular element that depends on symmetry, test both old and new Gmail versions to ensure your design renders properly. If CSS borders are giving you trouble, you may want to consider using a background color combined with a spacer .gif to create the same look.

Background Images
Background images are supported in both versions of Gmail. However, the “background-image” CSS property is not supported, so the HTML “background” attribute must be used to assign a background image. Previously, there were issues using the CSS property “background-repeat”, but that property is also now currently supported.

Gmail Themes
Gmail introduced the concept of “themes” this year, which allow the user to select different combinations of background colors, text and link colors to personalize their inbox. Some combinations may render light text on a light background, or dark text on a dark background. The bottom line: you must specify background, text, and link colors in your HTML, or they may be changed in accordance with your subscriber’s Gmail Theme.

Testing
Always be sure to test in major web browsers like Internet Explorer and Firefox, and remember that there are both newer and older versions of Gmail. Gmail is a great client to test first when finishing your campaign, as it exposes rendering problems and is unforgiving of any HTML syntax errors. 

Personally, I love using Gmail — it has great features including shared docs, calendars, folder organization tools and other interactive capabilities, so let's make sure our subscribers continue to have a great experience in Gmail. Portions of this blog, Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Gmail, and more information on email rendering can be found in our whitepaper "Email Marketing Design: The New Essentials”.

Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007

Thursday, October 22, 2009 by Andrea Smith

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.

Email Design Tip of the Week: 3-2-1, Wait! A Checklist Before Hitting Send

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Andrea Smith

written by David Hoang

Question: When do email marketing professionals usually take a break or step out?

Answer: When he or she just hit the “send” button for a mass email.

There is nothing more nerve wracking than hitting the button with no return. Unlike web publishing, there is no turning back with email. So what’s the solution? You can say, “don’t make any mistakes” – but it’s inevitable. What you can do, however, is strategically make a checklist of what to do before hitting the send button to make sure mistakes are avoided.

Here are some quick tips on what you should run through your mind; so you don’t have to leave the building after delivering an email:

Is it legit? After every round of revisions, always validate the message; the simplest way to see if you have everything to get it out the door: physical address, unsubscribe link, etc.
Do an email test. It's practically unheard of wherein you send out a mass email campaign without testing; so don’t do it. Set up a few test email accounts (Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, AOL, etc.) and spend some time to see how it looks in each email client.
Spell check. Repeat. Your email delivery is intended for 1-to-1 marketing, so write like you’re taking quality time to communicate with your subscribers. Run spell check, manually look for spelling errors and yes, read the message out loud. If this seems like too much work, make someone else do it!

As much as email marketing is mass-produced, the one-to-one messaging is its key to effectiveness. Therefore taking time to communicate a message and doing it correctly, with no spelling and grammatical errors, should be top priority. Not only will avoiding these common pitfalls save you face, it will also make your recipients feel like you have taken that extra step to make sure it's perfect.

Check the details. Take a look at every aspect of your message to make sure something is not missing. Do you have a subject line? Is it the correct one? Do all of the links in the email go to the proper pages?
Do a final once-over. Think of this as when you were taught crossing the street. Look left, look right, then look left again. Test your email to make sure that there are no mistakes, especially if revisions were made. Scan with the mindset that you are looking for mistakes. If you don’t find them, hit the send button.

Ultimately, you want to come up with a method that's most comfortable to you. Make an actual checklist and cross off the steps as you prepare the send. With a routine checklist in mind, you can hopefully sit back and relax (a little bit more) after delivery.

Email Design Tip of the Week: Designer’s Top Ten Countdown to Connections

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 by Kristina Schott

Connections is less than a week away, and the Design Solutions team is anxiously awaiting the fanfare, fun, and finale. Here's how to make the most of ten designerly highlights of Connections from the Design Solutions team.

10. Grab some Design Solutions Schwag at the Design Solutions booth in the Expo Hall. No boring pens or notepads here; we're outfitted with fun, unique, pilfer-worthy schwag and design resources.

9. Mingle in the Expo Hall: Dig up plenty of those business cards, pop a tic tac, and practice being a social butterfly in the Expo Hall. You have something in common with everyone here, so introduce yourself to a lonely stranger and start dropping some one-to-one marketing buzzwords.
8. Check out the evening Reception at The IMA: the galleries, sprawling gardens and grounds, set the stage for artful fun. Bring your camera for a photo op at the iconic LOVE sculpture.

7. See Kelly Mooney, keynote speaker; your brand will benefit from the insights of her book, "The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World."

6. Rock out with They Might be Giants at the historic Murat Centre. Don't forget to pack your dancing shoes for this one; do a little studying beforehand by listening to the 30-second previews on iTunes. You'll end up buying it.

5. Attend the Designed by Success panel; we can't wait to see all the examples that Email Data Source has pulled together. Get a seat in the front row to absorb as much design karma from Lisa Harmon as possible.

4. Video in email is a favorite topic of conversation lately; whether you love it, hate it, or just want to know the emerging best practices for video in email, come sit in on the Video in Email Panel, featuring a talented member of the Design Solutions team.

3. Get some expert advice from a Design Consultant at the Design Solutions Booth in the Expo Hall. The team is offering free Email Critiques. We can't wait to see what you're creating!

2. Malcolm Gladwell

1. Extreme Makeover, the Email Design Competition; see three incredible teams' redesigns for three clients, vote for your favorite, and watch the dramatic reveal!

Designer's Top Ten Countdown to Connections

Email Design Tip of the Week: Extreme Makeover, The Email Design Competition

Thursday, September 17, 2009 by Andrea Smith

We’ve blogged about it before, but we’re so excited we just have to share it again. The Design Solutions team is currently knee-deep working on one of ExactTarget’s premier main-stage events at Connections 2009. Still don’t know what I’m talking about? It’s simple – you can’t afford to miss:

Extreme Makeover: The Email Design Competition.
Connections 2009, Indianapolis, IN • Thursday, Oct. 15th, 10:00 – 11:00am

The specifics
Three design teams compete. Only one can win! Design teams from ExactTarget, Mighty Interactive, and Smith-Harmon have redesigned and will soon deploy their take on emails for three different ExactTarget clients. First join each team as they present their hard work, vote for your favorite via text, and then watch in anticipation as MarketingExperiments reveals both the fan favorites and the results of each battle as measured by clicks and conversions.

COMPETITORS: ExactTarget, Mighty Interactive, Smith-Harmon 
CLIENT PARTICIPANTS: MarketingExperiments, AAA, Pier 1
 JUDGE: MarketingExperiments

This is an amazing opportunity to see not only how important it is to have good design in email, but also how strategy, content hierarchy, and the unique email landscape come together for performance-driven success. Be sure to join us!

Design Solutions
In addition to the Extreme Makeover Competition, don't miss the ExactTarget Design Solutions team at our booth in the expo hall. Bring all your burning questions, sneak a quick critique and talk to the experts!

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