Email Campaign System

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!

The 7 Secrets to Recovering Abandoned Shopping Carts

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Joel Book

On Tuesday. February 16^th, I have the pleasure of co-hosting a webinar that will tackle the problem of shopping cart abandonment. The webinar is titled, “The 7 Secrets to Recovering Abandoned Shopping Carts,” and will cover the strategy and technology required to implement an effective shopping cart abandonment solution.

If you’re an online marketer, and shopping cart abandonment is a recurring problem, I highly recommend you register to attend this webinar! Joining me to co-host this webinar will be Charles Nicholls, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SeeWhy. What’s great about this webinar is that we will take you “behind the scene” of the highly successful shopping cart remarketing strategy of Smiley Cookie. Smiley Cookie is using SeeWhy’s Abandonment Tracker Pro to trigger remarketing campaigns using ExactTarget’s transactional API. This provides a real-time follow up to shopping cart abandoners.

Smileycookie.com is a division of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, which includes Eat’n Park Restaurants and Six Penn Kitchen. Eat’n Park’s mascot is “Smiley,” a walking sugar cookie with a smiley face. Eat'n Park is well-known for its Smiley Cookies, which are frosted sugar cookies with smiley faces drawn on them in icing. Last year, Eat’n Park made over 11 million Smiley Cookies.

Our Interview with Adam Golumb of Smiley Cookie

Recently, Charles Nicholls and I caught up with Adam Golomb, director of e-commerce at Smileycookie.com, to discuss their new shopping cart recovery program. Adam is responsible for the online channel — www.smileycookie.com/ — which sells Smiley Cookies and related merchandise on line.

Website Conversion: Why did you decide to start a shopping cart abandonment remarketing program?

AG: We spend a tremendous amount of money to get customers to the site, but with 60 percent abandoning the shopping cart process, remarketing represented low-hanging fruit. These customers were already interested in the brand and had placed items in their shopping cart, only to abandon, so sending follow-up emails seemed like an obvious tactic to get them back and convert them into sales.

Website Conversion: What have you learned about shopping cart recovery?

AG: It’s still the early days for Smileycookie.com, but it’s clear that it’s a good tool to recover some sales, in particular where customers thought that they’d completed their purchase, but hadn’t. Some customers have replied to the email explaining why they had abandoned their shopping cart. The cost of shipping is the number one reason given, very much in line with industry numbers. As a result, we’ve been testing a free shipping offer when they spend $40 or more. This looks promising and has helped to raise our average order value. We don’t offer any incentives yet in our current campaign, and we think this will be important in driving additional sales.

Website Conversion: What’s next in your remarketing campaign?

AG: We’re just about to roll out a multi-step version of the campaign. We started with a simple service-based follow-up email which is sent out immediately following an abandonment. This is a simple reminder email that the customer did not complete the process. Our multi-step campaign will contact them again after 24 hours, and then after 7 days, and include some incentives. We’re pretty excited about it and think it will drive additional sales.

Website Conversion: How have customers reacted?

AG: We haven’t had anyone feeling that it was ‘Big Brotherish,’ and some people have found it very helpful. In particular where the customer thought that they’d made it all the way through the shopping cart process, but hadn’t, the email is a prompt for them to contact us, often by phone. Customers are very grateful when this happens. It has also highlighted some problems with our shopping cart process on the website which we’ve now addressed.

Website Conversion: Does it matter that you don’t have a persistent cart?

AG: Definitely. We’re working on putting a persistent cart in place, although we don’t offer many SKUs. Today we provide a link in the follow-up email which takes them back to the item they placed in their cart. We’ve had customers following the link back, going directly to the website and contacting us by phone. A persistent cart should make it easier for them to complete their order online.

Website Conversion: How do you measure success?

AG: We measure success based on the number of completed orders. So we compare the sales generated by the program with spend on other marketing programs. It’s a bit manual because we get some orders coming in by phone.

Website Conversion: Can you talk about setting up the program and how complex it was to do?

AG: It took a bit longer than I thought it would. We already had an existing relationship with ExactTarget, so getting the email campaign set up and using SeeWhy to trigger emails using our existing ExactTarget account was straightforward. What took longer was tagging the site and working through our check-out process. Every time I thought we were nearly there, the IT guys seemed to have to make additional changes in order to get the detail right.

Website Conversion: How was it working with the SeeWhy team?

AG: It’s been great; they’ve been extremely responsive. When we had any issues they’ve been really proactive and very accessible. Smileycookie.com is using SeeWhy’s Abandonment Tracker Pro to trigger remarketing campaigns using ExactTarget’s transactional API. This provides a real-time follow up to shopping cart abandoners.

Distributed Email Marketing (Build vs. Partner series)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Dennis Hall

“It’s not a problem until it’s a problem.” A great quote from a Product Manager at a leading SaaS provider who I met on the road last week. His company had invested significant man years of development to build their own email infrastructure back in 2006.

He pointed out, “At the time there weren’t any other viable options for us so we didn’t have a choice.” As their customer base expanded, the volume of email followed in an exponential way. Their email system had shifted from a competitive advantage to a liability with issues from system failures, constant maintenance, delivery problems and limited visibility to tracking data.

More and more technology driven companies are experiencing these kinds of pains with their in-house email systems. And the question rises once again, “should we build version 2.0 or leverage a 3rd party?” Working with hundreds of technology companies over the years, I’ve heard all sides of the debate. Underneath the market research, the gap analysis and financial models, the decision ultimately rests on time, money, resources and strategy.

Next week, I'll share a list of top level requirements we've gleaned over the years from our Partners. If you are thinking of becoming an email service provider on behalf of your customers, you'll want to stay tuned!

Maybe you’ve “been there done that” or perhaps you are just beginning your journey. Either way, we are interested in your perspective so please feel free to share your comments or contact me directly anytime.

Dennis - dhall@exacttarget.com (512) 423-0876 (24 x 7!)

Design Tip of the Week: Visit our NEW Design Center!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Anna Meier

Recently, our Design Solutions team launched the Design Center on 3sixty. Within 3sixty University, the Design Center is an all-inclusive design resource to view and download our latest design whitepapers, template source codes, custom button collections and more! An extensive list of frequently asked design questions and HTML troubleshooting tips are also available, ranging in topics from preview pane dimensions to CSS support in email.

We invite you to visit, explore and gather inspiration for your next email campaign. We will continue to add and update features, so be sure to visit often and submit your feedback!

My Resolutions Have Resolutions

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Megan Sabine

As a fellow email marketer, I spent quite a bit of time in December determining what my 2010 resolutions were going to be. After finalizing my goals, I stared at my list…and then had a moment of panic. How exactly am I going to get everything done in 2010?!?!?

It was at that moment that I decided to make resolutions on how I plan to achieve my resolutions. (And yes, I’m aware that it’s a lot like having a meeting to discuss another meeting or having a plan to have a plan.)

I’ve got high expectations for the New Year and I won’t settle for anything less. Hopefully by using the sub-goals below (yup, I said sub-goals), I’ll have a completed to-do list on December 31, 2010. And in my eyes that’s reason enough to have goals for goals and meetings on meetings!

One slip up doesn’t mean I get to forget about that resolution for the rest of the year.
Like many of you, a big resolutions of mine is to test, test, and test some more with ExactTarget’s communications. Also like many of you, sometime the timeline doesn’t allow for the in-depth testing schedule I’d like. While those scenarios aren’t going to go away in 2010, the notion of “well I didn’t test anything on the last communication, so I’m not going to on this one either” will. Every time I have the opportunity to test, you can bet I will.

Set goals that are both challenging and attainable.
While I’m a big fan of setting high goals, I’m an even bigger fan of achieving my goals. Goals should be pushing you past the limits of your comfort zone and challenging you to reach the next level, but you shouldn’t be setting goals that have a zero chance of being met. If currently all of your email campaigns are a manual process, make one of your 2010 goals to automate 4 campaigns versus automating all of your campaigns. If none of your communications contain a social media aspect, resolve to have social media in your “bread and butter” communications.

Uncomplicating my complicated goals.
In the world of email marketing, it’s easy to make a scenario complicated very quickly. For example, you want your email communications to feed off of search history living in your website analytics while pulling in information from your CRM – all while conducting a multi-variant test. And the head scratching begins. Having a 360 view of how your subscriber is interacting with your company is a great 2010 resolution, but at the same time very daunting to tackle at once. It’s a lot easier to tackle one complex goal (think integrating your email with your web analytics) than attempting to tackle all of them at once. That’s why I’ll be setting quarterly goals that will keep me on track for achieving the bigger (and scarier) resolutions of 2010.

P.S. Stuck on what your 2010 resolutions should be? Our latest whitepaper, 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010, takes the guess work out of the equation.

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!

Aptera’s 2010 Email Marketing Resolutions

Friday, January 8, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio

The following post is from Brooke Francesi who runs email marketing at Aptera, an ExactTarget customer. Aptera is a custom software development and web design firm.

With a new year, a new decade, and a lucky seven anniversary on the horizon, Aptera is looking forward to 2010, especially what is holds in store for our e-mail marketing program. Unlike other marketing avenues, it’s a relatively painless process to analyze the overall success of your e-mail campaigns and adjust where needed. That’s exactly what we’ve done to create our resolutions for 2010.

More effective segmentation:
While our subscriber lists are already segmented into basic categories, we realize that segmentation doesn’t have to end there. For 2010 we are resolved to revamp our system and divide subscribers into vertical markets in order to better serve their interests. We do our best to adhere to ExactTarget’s Subscribers Rule! mantra and that’s something better segmentation can only help.

1, 2, 3 Testing:
This year we’ve vowed to stop listening to what people tell us will work, and find out what really works. We know what worked last year, but will it work this year? Numerous sources report that testers achieve significantly higher open and click-through rates, as well as conversion rates. We’re not going to just believe it; we’re going to test different variations of the message, the creative, the timing, and the frequency.

Get social:
For Aptera, 2010 is the year we eradicate the “one-way-road” approach to information. We’re building a four-lane highway to connect data-rich sources of information. Keeping e-mail and social media apart just doesn’t make sense. We plan to share the stand-out information in our e-mails, and recruit opt-ins from friends and followers in our social environments. Why would we use social networking and e-mail as mutually exclusive channels when we can utilize them together?

There are easily over a dozen other 2010 resolutions we could be making to improve the success of Aptera’s e-mail marketing campaigns, but there sense in getting ahead of ourselves. I firmly believe that positive change occurs in baby steps, and by setting oneself up for success rather than failure. So, here’s to 2010 and e-mail success for everyone!

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.

Winning Strategies for Growing Your Email Subscriber Database

Friday, December 11, 2009 by Joel Book

Lary Stucker of FreshClicks.net just posted my guest blog, Winning Strategies for Growing Your Email Subscriber Database on his Marketing and Analytics Strategies blog.

You can also check out Lary’s guest post on the ExactTarget blog,
4 Ways to Use Analytics to Improve Your Email Campaigns.

We would love to hear feedback from you. You can post a comment below, or let @ExactTarget and @LaryStucker know what you think on twitter.

4 Ways to Use Analytics to Improve Your Email Campaigns

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Kevin Nuest

This post was guest written by Lary Stucker of FreshClicks.net, a blog about Marketing and Analytics Strategies.

If you're anything like me, one of the big draws of online marketing is the ability to use analytics to track, report, and improve your marketing campaigns. Not only can you use this data to demonstrate the value of your marketing efforts, you can also gain greater customer insight by studying how they respond. So lets look at 4 practical ways you can improve your email campaigns by using your basic reporting tools.

1. Improving Delivery Rates:

Low delivery rates make ISPs nervous. When ISPs get nervous about your emails they label you as SPAM first and ask questions later. Your email campaigns' delivery rates should be in the high 90%. If they are not it means that you need to:

• Filter out those bad and old email address: When you send email to bad addresses, ISPs take notice. Often ISPs will flag a known bad address and if you are sending email to that address they are going to think you are sending spam.

• Improve your collection methods: Make sure potential subscribers clearly understand what they are signing up for, and use a double opt-in method. You can even write the confirmation email so that it reminds them why they signed up for your list in the first place.

2. Improving Open Rates:

You got the email in their inbox, but now what? When someone receives an email they usually open it in the first 24-48 hours. After that, it has been pushed so far down by new emails and other priorities that it will most likely get deleted. So every minute that goes by decreases the possibility that they are actually going to open your email. There are two things that you can measure and test to improve your open rates:

• Time of Day/ Week: Your subscribers are busy people, and depending on the type of campaigns you are running they might not want to read your newsletter or "special offer" first thing Monday morning. I use our existing web analytics to see which days are the most busy on our website. Then I'll look at which hours are the busiest on those days. Once I have that data I'll create random samples from my subscriber list and send on those busy days/hours and see which ones have the best open rates.

• Subject lines: make sure that your subject lines are interesting, enticing, and actually re-enforce the body of the email. The great thing is you can test subject lines and see what kinds of messages entice your subscribers to open. You'd be surprised how the smallest changes can make a big difference. We had a campaign with a decent open rate, (16.8%) after adding the word "Tips" to the subject line our open rate jumped to 25.4%! Suddenly the email went from looking like a marketing piece, to a useful resource our subscribers could actually use. By the way, the body of the email didn't change, but the subject line changed the expectation of the subscriber.

3. Improving Conversion/ Click-Through Rates:

One of the best things to improve conversion and click-through rates is to make it clear what the subscriber is going to find when they click on any link. We recently ran an "upgrade" campaign and decide to run A/B testing on a random portion of our list. The email to group A contained a link with a "Upgrade Now" button, while group B received an email message with a "buy now" button. What we found out was that group A expected the link to give them information about obtaining a free upgrade while group B clearly understood that the "buy now" link would take them to our store to purchase the upgrade. The results, 9.2% conversion rate on the "Upgrade Now" group and a 19.4% conversion rate on the "buy now" group. A difference of 210%!

4. Decreasing Unsubscribes

Lets be totally honest for a second. There are two reasons your company is putting resources into email campaigns. The reason you state on your signup form, to inform, educate or entertain your subscribers, and the reasons you discuss back at the office. Whether it’s to drive direct sales, nurture leads or increase brand awareness, email marketing is a valuable tool for your company. You know it and guess what, your subscribers know it too, and their okay with it. What they want is to not feel like you are trying to trick them into anything. Make sure that your email campaigns add value, have a consistent send schedule, and don't surprise them. After sending a campaign I always check our unsubscribe rates. Our average unsubscribe rate is 0.01%-0.02%. Anytime I see it above those rates I know something went wrong. Usually it has to do with the perceived value of the message or the time between campaigns. When you have analytical evidence like an increase in unsubscribe rates it is a lot easier to convince your copywriter and others in the company of needed changes.

What do you think?

By studying the analytical of your email campaigns you can greatly improve the effectiveness of your campaigns and gain greater insight into your customers. What kinds of insights have you been able to gain from your analytics? How were you able to use that to improve your email campaigns and marketing to your customers? I'd love to hear from you on twitter @LaryStucker or on my blog, www.FreshClicks.net!

Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Yahoo!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Tana Babcock

Continuing with our Email Rendering series, let’s take a quick look at a few quirks that Yahoo! is known for. Much like Gmail, Yahoo provides two web based clients, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Classic Mail. To change versions of Yahoo!, select from the “Options” drop down on the far right side of the screen.

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

Image Blocking - Alt Tags
Images are blocked by default in Yahoo!. However, Yahoo! does display stylized “alt” tags, so add those to your design when it makes sense to help create brand synergy.  You can always edit this image-blocking feature in your Mail Options. There are a few choices, “Always show images…”, “Show images only from my contacts”, or “Initially block images”. Personally, I have them turned on by default – but many of your subscribers may not, or may not even know they can edit this feature.

While no Email Service Provider can enable your images to display in an email client that blocks display, services such as Goodmail or CertifiedEmail™ allow email marketers to pay a per-message fee to deliver emails with “images on” to AOL, BT and Yahoo!.

Avoid Paragraph Tags

Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Mail Classic do not support the use of HTML paragraph tags <p>. Paragraph tags are used primarily to create space between sections of text. If two sections of text are each contained within paragraph tags the space that normally appear between the paragraphs will not be seen. In order to avoid this, break tags <br> can be used. Two break tags in a row will create the same amount of space between text sections as a paragraph tag.

Make sure to keep checking back for more useful rendering tips regarding other major email clients!

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”.

Are Your Subscriber's Fan's For Life?

Monday, November 2, 2009 by Lindsay Niemiec

On my drive back from Chicago last week, I noticed a large billboard towering over the interstate. Of course, many billboards crowd every interstate, but this one was different. The advertisement for the Chicago Bears, read “if you’re not a fan, you’re a tourist”. What grabbed my attention was not only to how clever I though the ad was, but how applicable it is to the ExactTarget’s Subscribers Rule! philosophy. Everyone wants to be a part of something special, and marketers want their customers to feel as if they are special too. It starts with delivering 1 to 1 direct marketing of which subscribers are a fan.

Does your marketing program address what your subscribers want? Or do you blast out the latest news and hope for click-throughs? Do you dynamically target the content of your emails to your subscriber's preferences? Or do you batch and blast the same email to everyone, hoping they find it relevant? As the NFL season continues and the holiday season kicks off, the relevance of your email campaign programs could be the key component in making your subscribers true fans.

If you make your subscriber a fan, then much like a Bears fan, they're in it for life. If not, then they're just a tourist on your list for now waiting for the next best thing.

What is ExactTarget Embedded?

Thursday, October 29, 2009 by Eric Hensley

As one of the newest members of the ExactTarget Partner organization, I am tasked with managing and growing relationships with ExactTarget’s Embedded Partners. On its surface, that sounds pretty straightforward. However, for the past several months, I have been trying to better define around what an “Embedded” partner truly is. There are multiple ways to define the topic, depending on who you ask.   And, in my experience, most of the answers I have heard are right in some way or another.

However, the official definition is that ExactTarget Embedded Partners are typically ISVs that go to market with messaging as a part of their platform. As an Embedded Partner, your software product's user interface contains features and functionality that enable your customers to manage the process of creating and executing email campaigns (as well as SMS and Voice). This is about the most comprehensive and accurate description I can come up with myself. But, with the growth in popularity of “Cloud Computing”, I believe it is and will be much more than that.

Cloud computing has garnered a lot of media attention in the past year or so as the next big technological breakthrough. But, in my opinion, the concept isn’t really all that new. Companies have always looked for ways to combine technology services in a more commoditized way to drive efficiency and cost savings. Amazon.com has been doing cloud computing within the company for a long time. Essentially, that is the exact same goal for cloud computing. I think the biggest difference with cloud computing is that the concept is getting turned outward to the Internet, hence the “cloud” tagline. As more companies sign on to utilize these services, the less they will be inclined to build internal infrastructure to support corporate applications.

Think of the advantages:

    *No capex/low capex to get started

    *Highly scalable with on-demand allocation of resources

    *Reliability of multi-location architectures

So how does messaging fit into the cloud? I see integrated messaging becoming its own service or platform in the cloud. Just like clients are looking to Salesforce.com to quickly and efficiently deploy CRM as a service, why not for marketing and other communications? It even makes more sense when you look at what the future of ISVs might be. More and more we are seeing a drive towards SaaS applications. Do you think it makes sense for a CRM or Print-on-Demand application provider to build their own messaging infrastructure? Probably not for several reasons, the most obvious being, it’s not their core competency. They will continue to be focused on what pays the bills. But, will they be eager to provide a marketing communication platform to their customers….absolutely. These companies will turn to partners that are similar to them…on-demand/SaaS/Cloud Computing…whatever the tagline of the week is. Why, because it provides the same advantages to them as to their clients, mainly low/no capex, highly scalable, and reliable service. This is where ExactTarget Embedded becomes the Messaging as a Service platform for the cloud.

Obviously the push towards SaaS and Cloud Computing is real.   As the industry continues to evolve, so will ExactTarget Embedded and our partners. Our robust and flexible integration capabilities will allow ExactTarget to become the industry leader in Messaging as a Service.

Email System Process Term of the Day: Asynchronous, Scheduled, and Real-Time

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Amanda Cross

Your email marketing messages don't have to be processed right away. Different timing is appropriate for different tasks, and in some cases the ExactTarget application gives you the control to choose how--and when--your system does its work.

Asynchronous
An asynchronous process is a process that runs “behind the scenes” while you continue to use the interface to perform other tasks. You receive an email or other alert that the process is complete so that you can view the results.

For example, if you start an asynchronous report, the report runs while you continue working. When the report is done, you receive an email that contains the report results.

Scheduled
A scheduled process is a process that runs automatically at the time you designate. You receive an email or other alert that the process is complete so that you can view the results.

For example, if you schedule an email send to begin at 11p.m., the system begins the send at 11p.m. and can send you an email when the process completes to give details on the success of the send.

Real-Time
A real‐time process is a process that runs in the foreground of your application. You cannot
perform other tasks while the real‐time process is running. When the process is complete, the application presents the results on your screen.

Time for your Halloween email...I mean Holiday Email Program

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Shelly Griffin

I don't know about you, but I like to enjoy each holiday on its own and in order. Especially in the Fall when the three big holidays come hurtling at you back to back from the dark days of Fall: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don't put out Halloween decorations until October, I don't buy a turkey until November and I don't really start planning for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I definitely do not shop for Christmas presents in July! Who really does that anyway?

Unfortunately in the world of email marketing, you need to start planning your holiday email program now - today - Yesterday! You need to ensure that your emails are planned, designed, tested, scheduled and ready for delivery. The holiday season is when the inbox gets the most congested and without advance planning, your emails may be lost in the crowd. In addition to driving for results, you want to ensure that you are not one of those marketers that over do it - sending a different offer everyday. After just a few of these emails, your subscribers will start ignoring (and deleting) your emails. Chip House spoke to this very subject in a blog post from last year "High Holiday Frequency Drives the Ignore Rate to New Heights".

You also don't want to be one of those marketers that make no significant change or improvement in your email campaign. Those emails seem uninspiring at a time of year when you should be grabbing the attention of your subscribers. Make sure to check out our design tips and tricks at Email Marketing Design blog. Then on top of everything else, there are deliverability challenges at the holidays.

Where will your email program land?

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Friday, October 23, 2009 by Karen Balle

When my nephew was much younger, we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas together on VHS until the tape broke. He even thought his name was Jack the Pumpkin King! The soundtrack will be stuck in my head for the rest of my life.

Not only is this one of the best movies of all time, but it's a wonderful commentary on the state of email marketing during the holiday season. I don't just mean that trying to get email delivered is a nightmare starting around Halloween or that marketers find themselves in somewhat different situations than they're used to during the rest of the year. The flow of the movie and the soundtrack fit with how email marketing happens during the holiday season. It happens every year.

There's a dramatic uptick in all email marketing, be it legitimate email marketing or spam, that starts when the weather gets cold. Some years, it triples or quadruples normal email volume. And that means slower mail servers, more filters, more complaints, and slower response times. It also means overworked, cranky mail and abuse admins. I know. I've been one of those cranky abuse admins.

The rules surrounding email deliverability, which are confusing enough, get more complicated during this time of year. It feels like every company you have ever driven past and every partner of theirs is vying for your attention. There are a lot of little things that you can do, from holiday ramp-up strategies to promoting special holiday-only marketing campaigns that draw customers in.

I'll leave you for now with this very important thought.

Engagement is more important than ever. If you don't get the attention of your recipients, you'll find your email in the spam folder or blocked during your most crucial sales period.

As I've been writing this, the song "Making Christmas" has been running through my head. It makes me want to ask which mindset do you have for your email campaigns, going into this holiday season?

"Snakes and mice get wrapped up so nice with spider legs and pretty bows.
It's ours this time."
(Your focus is on your ideas of what your recipients should want. You reach years back into your subscriber database. You send out email to people who didn't give you permission.)

Or
"This thing will never make a present. It's been dead now for much too long.
Try something fresher, something pleasant."
(Your focus is on what your customers are really interested in. You're interested in actively engaged subscribers rather than the number of subscribers on your list. You use dynamic content to create a one-to-one experience for your customers.)

Do people really report legitimate email as spam?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 by Karen Balle

Gmail and MSN Hotmail have recently started offering an unsubscribe link instead of a report spam button for some permission-based mailing lists, using the hidden X-List-Unsubscribe header that many email marketers and ESPs include in their emails. It makes sense, as many people use the This is Spam button instead of unsubscribing from opt-in email.

A customer asked us for some solid numbers on their unsubscribes, as they're trying to make some internal decisions on how to handle their unsubscribe process. I knew the number of subscribers who click on the spam button was significant, but the numbers were eye-opening. I looked at data for almost 80,000,000 emails sent (Yes, 80 MILLION emails), with complaint rates that never came near where an ISP would block and bounce rates that would make you drool.

17% of unsubscribes came from customers who hit reply and asked to be removed.
43% of unsubscribes came from customers who followed the unsubscribe link in the email.
40% of unsubscribes came from customers who clicked the This is Spam button.

That's right. 40% of legitimate unsubscribes came through the feedback loop as a complaint. ISPs take this figure into account, but it should give you something to think about next time you look to expand your email campaign.

Even though they recognized the brand.

Even though they signed up for the email.

Even though they recently purchased from the company.

Even though many of them will continue to purchase services from this company.

On a list with engaged and active subscribers, 40% of the subscribers who no longer wanted to receive promotional materials that they had signed up for used the spam button instead of the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

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.

1-to-1 Marketing and Beyond: Success Stories

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Amanda Cross

When you hear The World Society for the Protection of Animals you probably don't think of a standard B2C with a targeted marketing message. Even so, this group has achieved a 50% increase in online donations with the power of 1-to-1 marketing tools, specifically dynamic content through ExactTarget.

Meanwhile, Motorcycle Superstore realized double-digit increases in open rates as a result of integrating online browsing and purchase data into their email marketing decisions. In this case, the ExactTarget tool driving the relevant message to the customer was the integration with Webtrends.

In another case, the online photo book publisher, Inkubook, announces that email marketing through ExactTarget drove more than 60% of its first year revenue. While PetPlace.com went from zero to $1 million in online sales in less than 12 months with the help of ExactTarget email campaigns.

It doesn't matter whether you're selling sidecars or gathering signatures on a petition, people are more likely to hear your message when you're saying something that's important to them. Using the tools that help you send a more customized messages not only create more fertile ground for conversions, but also create more fertile ground for building a lasting relationship.

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