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Getting Past Listening on Twitter

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio
If you have read anything about social media, the first thing you can do when starting out is to “Listen.”

But it’s really not enough just to listen anymore. 

Now don’t get me wrong, you definitely need to be listening.  Listening to what your customers are saying about you will help you formulate how you respond and find trends in what people are saying about your brand.

Just like with email marketing you have to be relevant and engaging or people will unsubcribe via unfollowing/unfriending you.  No one wants to talk to a brick wall and even worse no one wants to get a constant stream of interruptive marketing messages.  Twitter provides an instant communication tool that allows you to have conversations with your customers on a daily basis.  Why wouldn’t you use that to get feature requests, encourage customers to collaborate with each other and even get positive feedback!

Some of my most rewarding conversations have been helping our customers learn more about email marketing, learn more about our product, and help solve issues they may be having.

It is truly the year of the customer. It’s time to get past just listening and start engaging. 

You can follow us (and talk to me!) on Twitter @ExactTarget or by being our Fan on Facebook.

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Time for some Email Marketing Spring Cleaning

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Shelly Griffin
Maybe I am just a little too happy about the warmer weather... but I can smell Spring in the air.  The snow has finally all melted, the birds are chirping, the days are getting warmer. Yes, Spring is in the air.  Granted my happiness may be a tad premature.  As the saying goes: if you don't like the weather in Indiana just wait 10 minutes.  We could easily have more snow during the month of March.  Whatever the case, I am going with it. 

Spring is also the time to think about Spring cleaning.  I am one of those weird people that actually looks forward to spring cleaning.  I like the idea of starting fresh.  Doing the deep cleaning and organizing.  Open up the windows and let the fresh air into the house.   

It's also a perfect time to do some email marketing spring cleaning... use a little elbow grease to scrub your subscriber database.  Take the tooth brush and get down in the cracks.  Are there subscribers that have stopped opening your emails?  Maybe it's time to segment those to a different list and change the way in which you communicate with that group.  It may be time to verify the frequency that your subscribers want to be communicated with, along with the content that they wish to receive.

I'm also of the belief that if something hasn't been used in a year, it needs to go.  Donate it, throw it away, sell it - whatever the case it has to leave the house.  Take the same approach to your emails.  Design not working for you?  Not seeing the open rate you expect or the open rate has declined over time?  Then it is probably time to toss your email design and start fresh.  Clean out the cobwebs.  Review our Email Design Tips of the Week for some email design spring cleaning inspiration!

The other thing I LOVE about spring is the garden catalogs!  You get to dream and plan all the beautiful plants that you can add to your garden this year.  Check out what's new.  With your email marketing program, there are all types of resources and ideas out there that you can peruse with wonderment and anticipation... maybe it is time to incorporate Twitter into your email marketing program.

All this talk of spring and sunshine... I think I'll go for a walk outside!
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Designing For Your Subscribers: Webinar Q&A

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 by Justine Jordan
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend “Designing For Your Subscribers: Tips and Tricks to Increase Email Marketing ROI” last week. We had an excellent turnout and plenty of great questions. If you weren’t able to attend the session, don’t worry! You can watch a recording of the one-hour webinar on 3sixty.

Do you have data on email clients that consumer subscribers tend to use?
While data is available, your mileage may vary. Each audience will be different, and you may see dramatically different segments in your list or even between lists, as we saw in the webinar. Fingerprint publishes an aggregate of the data collected from marketers utilizing their service. MailboxIQ provides an in-depth view of email client usage, where emails are being read, and more. Even a simple List Demographics report in ExactTarget can help you understand which email clients your subscribers might be using.

What are the default pixel dimensions for common preview panes?
Over half of subscribers use a preview pane in their email client. We measured each of the default preview pane setups on Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Yahoo, Hotmail, and Mail using a 1024x768 monitor resolution. Read the blog post here.

Do you also have data on monitor resolutions in order to determine which portion of an email might be “above the fold”?
Similar to preview pane dimensions, the dimensions for the area above the fold may vary widely since individual users can adjust the size of their preview pane and their inbox in general. Keep in mind that your users may not be viewing your email in an inbox maximized to full screen resolution. w3schools.com publishes display resolution trend information (as do many other sites), but it’s important to remember this data comes from their own website traffic. Just as with email clients, your own website’s analytics data may reveal more pertinent information about your subscribers’ screen settings.

Browser Size by Google Labs is a great tool for indentifying what portion of your email might be “below the fold” in different monitor resolutions. Keep in mind the following caveats: you must have a web-hosted version of your email (you need a URL to paste in) and the email should be left-aligned for best results.

What should be the ideal width of an email in pixels?
We continue to recommend 600px wide as a guideline. We’ve seen success with narrower and wider variations. Again, your results may vary. Generally speaking, we wouldn’t recommend going much wider than 750px.

Where did the "50% of users have images turned off" metric come from?
Many popular email clients—including Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail—disable images by default, forcing the subscriber to choose to turn images on. As we saw in our discussion of email client usage, these email clients can account for 70+% on many lists. It’s important to note that images off is the default for these email clients.

When designing using ExactTarget templates, how can you edit the preheader teaser text?
Our Client Success Center would be happy to assist you. You may reach the CSC by creating a case in BackOffice, sending an email to help@exacttarget.com or calling 866-558-9823.

How do I find out what the "web safe" fonts are?
This site has a great list of web-safe fonts and matches font equivalents between a Windows and Mac environment.

Is there any way to control what content is seen on a mobile phone using CSS? How should I create a mobile friendly version?
There are ways for a website to detect a mobile device and automatically serve up appropriate content, but email currently requires a manual approach. If you’re seeing a significant number of subscribers viewing your emails on a mobile device, we’d recommend creating a simple mobile HTML version and linking to it in the upper left of your standard HTML email. This version would include web safe fonts with minor formatting (color, bold, italics), short teaser text linking to full content, and little more than a simple image (such as a logo) at the top. This creates a great foundation for a mobile-friendly program, which can certainly grow – for example, eventually you might allow subscribers to choose “mobile preferred” and send them a mobile specific email directly.

Thanks again for attending and for all the great questions!

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Email, Meet Social.

Saturday, March 6, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio
Last week was a tremendous week here at ExactTarget with the acquisition announcement of CoTweet.  This acquisition sent a lot of buzz through the press (we really have been all-a-Twitter!), Twitter and even my inbox! I couldn't be more excited about the future of interactive marketing.

I've used CoTweet since the spring of 2009 to listen and engage with ExactTarget's Twitter conversations.  Honestly, after going thru multiple processes and using multiple different applications - it is the only platform truly built for businesses to manage their Twitter conversations.

Email Marketing Meet Social Media Marketing
What's really exciting is that this is a huge statement in one-to-one communications. Consumers are demanding marketers to send them relevelant messages, in the way they want to receive it.  Your customer may want a tweet for a discount code, a text message for when their purchase has been shipped and an email for recommending new products they might like based off of what they've purchased.

Who's geeked out? I know I am!

Want to learn more? Check out http://www.exacttarget.com/Connected for more info, great data on Social Media Trends and a video from both CEOs talking about the power of ExactTarget & CoTweet.

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Your emails CAN do it all!

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Shelly Griffin

DineWise EmailEveryone knows that I love to hear how our customers are using ExactTarget's application for their email marketing campaigns - especially when it is a great example of incorporating good design, call-to-actions, and cross sells - while still maintaining anticipated, relevant and personal content for subscribers.  DineWise is a company that specializes in prepared gourmet meals delivered right to your door.  They send both informational and promotional emails through ExactTarget.  Check out this recent article on exactly what sets their emails apart.

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ESPC Call: Cloudmark and Best/Worst Practices

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Al Iverson
As part of Cloudmark's ongoing ESP outreach program, where they work to help spread knowledge and understanding of best practices and bad practices, Jamie Tomasello of Cloudmark spoke to the ESPC (Email Sender and Provider Coalition) group on March 2nd, 2010. ExactTarget is an ESPC member, so I listened in.

Cloudmark is a really big spam filterer, protecting over one billion mailboxes across 190 countries. Successful delivery of email to the inbox depends on passing successfully through Cloudmark filters at a lot of different receiving sites that matter, both B2C and B2B. That makes it important to understand what Cloudmark considers to be good practices and bad practices, as these perceptions are likely to drive their filtering decisions and affect your ability to get mail delivered (or not).

Jamie explained that in the eyes of end recipients of email, the definition of spam is changing. It's not so much just "do you have permission or not" as much as it is now "is the mail desired and wanted." The underlying statement there is that unclear permission, third-party permission, co-registration, etc. are not best practices, and are likely to cause deliverablity woes. As she indicated, these are mailing practices that have been defended in the past, but they're no longer defensible. ISPs and end recipients only want to let desired mail through. Is your mail desired?

Here are just a few of the Cloudmark-preferred best practices that Jamie mentioned on the call.
  • At a minimum, compliance with CAN-SPAM. (Keeping in mind that CAN-SPAM is a starting point, not the finish line.)
  • Following MAAWG Senders Best Communication Practices document.
  • Implementing confirmed opt-in, also known as double opt-in, obtaining explicit permission confirming that every recipient really wants to be on your email list.
  • Segmenting or segregating marketing mail from transactional mail. Making sure you're not trying to dilute stats or get away with something by mixing mail streams. (Spam filterers are smart and will figure you out.)
  • Using consistent branding in content, sending domains, call to action domains, and reverse DNS.
  • Sending from dedicated IP addresses.
  • Utilizing feedback loop data to identify and solve problems. (What intelligence can you gather from the recipient response to the campaign? Don't just listwash.)
On the bad side of the practices spectrum, a few of the things that she mentioned that can damage your reputation include things like third party co-registration, email append (which consumers hate), list purchasing and mailing to inactive subscribers. She also pointed out that you're very likely to look like one of the bad guys if you're doing things like gaming reputation systems, distributing mail volume over a large number of IP addresses (also called snowshoeing), sending your mail via multiple ESPs or affiliates, or mixing non-relevant third-party mail in with relevant, permissioned messages-- a practice termed "spamouflage."

A lot of what was discussed is stuff that savvy ESPs (and savvy marketers) should know already. But, it's never a bad idea to remind folks of what the rules are, as new people and new companies enter the email space every day. I'm very glad that Jamie and Cloudmark are helping to raise the level of understanding of best practices among email marketers and their email service providers.
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ExactTarget Acquires CoTweet

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Scott Dorsey
The below message was sent to all ExactTarget clients March 2, 2010.  For additional information on the acquisition, visit www.ExactTarget.com/Connected

Email Marketing Meets Social Media - ExactTarget & CoTweet from ExactTarget on Vimeo.


Today is a historic day for ExactTarget and our clients! We are taking an enormous step forward in helping you bring together all forms of interactive communications and drive deeper customer engagement by combining the power of email marketing and social media.

I am excited to announce ExactTarget has completed the acquisition of CoTweet, the enterprise leader in helping businesses connect with customers via Twitter. CoTweet is an amazing software company that powers the Twitter campaigns of big brands like Microsoft, McDonald's, Sprint, Ford, Dell, Pepsi, Whole Foods, Intuit, Salesforce.com, USA Today and Coca-Cola. CoTweet's Web-based collaboration platform provides a single dashboard that allows multiple users to track conversations, assign roles and create follow-up tasks through workflows and simple case management. As one of the earliest Twitter pioneers, CoTweet has developed one of the closest direct relationships with Twitter and has earned the trust and admiration of the social media world.

CoTweet brings tremendous social media capabilities to ExactTarget and will operate as a business unit of ExactTarget in San Francisco focused exclusively on social media product development. CoTweet Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jesse Engle will lead the team and report directly to me as we work to quickly invest additional resources to establish our Social Media Lab - where we'll develop new innovations to help you harness the collective power of CoTweet and ExactTarget to increase customer engagement. To learn how you can leverage the power of ExactTarget and CoTweet together, visit ExactTarget.com/Connected. Click here to start using the free beta version of CoTweet or visit CoTweet's enterprise innovator's page to learn how you can access richer analytics, conversation history and drive even higher levels of engagement with their enterprise edition.

Today's announcement is the realization of the continued evolution of interactive marketing. We look forward to working with the CoTweet team to deliver new innovations and help drive your business by bringing together the power of email marketing and social media. Thank you for your continued partnership.
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Distributed Email Marketing (Build vs. Partner series)

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Dennis Hall
The process of implementing or replacing an email marketing module that will be distrbuted to your customers (and even your customer's customers) can be a daunting exercise, not only due to the complexity of developing functions like list management, content editing and tracking, but also because of the importance of factors outside the bits and bytes.

For example, deliverability (the rate at which emails make it to the subscriber’s inbox) is affected by the reputation of the sender not the quality of the code. Without the right policies and people to work with the major ISPs, the value of email (no matter how beautiful) is diminished.

To help you assess the magnitude of becoming your own Email Service Provider on behalf of your customers, we’ve put together a "top-ten" list of high-level requirements that our Partners have shared with us along with a bit of color.

1.    Reliability System availability and uptime are critical issues for email. As email volume grows, so must the system behind it. System failures will occur whether the system is in-house or 3rd party so management and recovery processes are constants.
2.    Deliverability Reputation and remediation capabilities are critical to ensure consistent, timely email delivery. Managing this process is one of the most expensive elements of email. To maximize delivery, the system must support a permission based, strong opt-in model as well as private (dedicated) IPs or domains.
3.    Security In addition to data protection standards (e.g. encryption/SMTP) to keep customer data safely behind the firewall, the system must maintain data integrity across multiple hierarchies and parent-child relationships.
4.    Transactional, operational sending Many ESPs do not support this capability within the framework or API. These types of emails, from loyalty programs to notifications, have become as effective as mass marketing emails in terms of driving consumer behavior.
5.    Relevance The ability to use subscriber attributes and external data tables to deliver tailored messages, including HTML, text, hyperlinks and images, has grown as a key differentiator for email marketing systems. Dynamic content is an example of innovation in this area.
6.    Performance List processing, send execution and tracking response are key metrics to be optimized. In today’s world of social media and instant buzz, customers want to know that there emails will be delivered in near real-time.
7.    User experience This category includes usability, look and feel as well as integration with external systems. The extent of control desired often dictates the go to market approach. An open, flexible framework will allow for a phased deployment.
8.    Tracking  Access to opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes, and conversion statistics are vital to measuring the impact of email programs. If this data is not available, it will become more difficult to justify cost from the user’s perspective.
9.    Unsubscribe options Support for campaign based or publication based management of unsubscribes is essential to building and sustaining subscriber lists. 
10.    Multi-channel Though Email remains a red-hot market and will continue to be a major channel of communication (despite the NY Times opinion, marketers expect to utilize other established and emerging channels, such as SMS (Text), Voice, Landing Pages and Social networks. Supporting such channels within a single platform will enable you to satisfy demand as it grows.

Your list will no doubt be unique - containing more granular requirements on what is needed to satisfy customer demand in your market. We'd love your feedback on what features, functions and/or factors are most important to you and why...

Stay tuned for the next part of the series...The Partner Paradox.

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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. 

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Twitterview: Digital Marketing Budgets in 2010

Friday, February 12, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio
Today I had the pleasure of Twitterviewing Linus Gregoriadis, Research Director at Econsultancy about our collaborative research, Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurement and Allocation Report. 

There is alot of great info on email marketing and social media! If you missed the live version here's what we talked about: 

@ExactTarget: According to the report marketers are shifting their budgets to digital channels.  Why?

@LinusGreg: The shift to digital is an on-going trend. The wider use of online to boost brand reputation is giving this fresh impetus


ExactTarget: Would you say this was the biggest surprise coming out of the research?

LinusGreg: Yes. We expected ROI would drive the shift. Now seeing softer metrics along with harder financials driving digital spending

LinusGreg: Another surprise-a # of companies mentioned lack of training budgets for digital. Need ongoing training to succeed


ExactTarget: Were there any differences between marketers in the US and UK that caught your attention?

LinusGreg: Yes, more than a quarter (27%) of UK marketing budget is going digital, compared to only a fifth (20%) for US companies


ExactTarget: For marketers what should be the priority? On-site social media (blogs, ratings), or off-site social media (Social Networks)?

LinusGreg: There is no fixed formula for social media. The right mix of  strategies, tactics and web sites depends on your business

LinusGreg: There is a lot of focus on Facebook and Twitter, but building Social Media into your own site is important. Use both!


ExactTarget: U found digital budget allocation is based on “more science than art” What's the impact on those still trying 2 track Social Media?

LinusGreg: Social Media has benefits that precede hard metrics. E.g., reputation must be good in order to sell. Tracking ROI will come.


ExactTarget: How important will brand management be in 2010 and how does social and email fit in?

LinusGreg: Brand management is more important than ever. Well-thought-out social and email strategies are integral to brand-building.

LinusGreg: Social media helps monitor what is resonating. Email is crucial for reaching out and maintaining ongoing relationships


ExactTarget: Lastly, what is the biggest challenge facing digital marketers?

LinusGreg: Staffing is a big challenge. Companies are short handed, which makes it difficult to spend time needed educating stakeholders

LinusGreg: But the real challenge is understanding what works and why ... and trying to explain in 140 characters ;-)


ExactTarget: Where can people go for more information on Marketing Budgets in 2010?

LinusGreg: The full report is @ http://bit.ly/marketingbudgets and free ExactTarget briefing with extra charts @ http://bit.ly/anwhlH


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2010 Marketing Budgets, Changes by Industry and Audience

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 by Morgan Stewart
Last week we released the Marketing Budgets 2010: Effectiveness, Measurement and Allocation Report done in collaboration with Econsultancy. We also released a 2-page brief on the study More Money, More Channels: Marketing Budgets in 2010.

Following a release like this, it is always enlightening to read feedback and questions that emerge in response to the data. Even better is when we can address questions or expand into related topics using data we already have available.

And such is is the case here. I ran across a comment last week on MarketingPilgram.com that gave us an idea. The comment? “I find summaries like this to be almost useless. It would be helpful to see results reported by industry-type.” Yes, ouch! Given that the report was already 50 pages long, we didn't include this information. But thankfully we can change that and Econsultancy has been kind enough to allow us to post this data on our site free of charge!

So now, when you register to download the research brief published by ExactTarget, you will also get a link to download a PowerPoint deck full of charts detailing the changes in marketing budgets by industry. There are over 30 charts in the deck broken out by channel (e.g., email, search, social, television), industry (e.g., retail, travel, publishing, etc.), and audience (e.g., B2C, B2B). Here's an example:



Clearly industry does play a role. Looking at retention email marketing budgets by industry, for example, we see huge discrepancies. While only 44% of travel companies plan to increase their email budgets in 2010, 71% of retailers plan to increase spending in this area.



Likewise, there is a significant difference in the changes in spending on mobile marketing depending on audience type. 66% of B2C marketers will increase mobile marketing budgets compared to only 44% of B2B marketers.
 
So Tom Kasperski, thanks for the comment and I hope you find the detailed information included in the additional charts valuable. Likewise, if anyone else has data they would like to see presented differently, please let us know by posting a comment!

Get the supplemental charts by registering to download our brief on the research project, More Money, More Channels: Marketing Budgets in 2010.
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Time to Take a break and Review Your Email Acquistion program.

Friday, February 5, 2010 by Shelly Griffin
Ok..I admit it, I am not making a great start to the year when it comes to keeping up with my blog.  It is soo easy to get bogged down in the day to day, that I find myself at the end of each week wondering where it went.  Poof!  Another week gone by in the blink of an eye.  And we're only in the second month of the year..not a good sign of things to come. 

Talking to clients, this same phenomenon easily takes hold of their email programs.  All the best intentions to prep, plan, test, target, review, revamp are diminished by the need to get the email out the door.  Poof!  Another send gone...maybe next time.  We all need to set time in our weeks for reflection and planning.  We need more buffers in our schedules.

The first priority in any email marketing program should be a review of your email sign-up and email acquisition.  This time of year is the perfect time to take some time to review the sign-up forms, how you request permission, the expectations and anticipated content for each email.  Last week Stefan Pollard from ClickZ featured an article on "How to Improve your Process for Acquiring Subscribers".  Set some time aside to read, reflect and then revamp your own email acquisition programs. 
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Maine AG: State email lists are public data

Thursday, February 4, 2010 by Al Iverson
As mentioned on MediaPost's Email Insider and elsewhere, the Maine Attorney General's office recently ruled that email addresses of people who contacted various state departments are fair game, that they must be supplied to anybody who submits an inquiry via Maine's Freedom of Access Act.

This means that any sort of advocacy group can petition the state government to provide a list of all the email addresses of people who contacted them on a given topic; and then they would be able to spam those people, to further the advocacy group's goals. BAD NEWS.

Spamhaus blogged about this; click here to read their take on why this is a bad idea. We couldn't agree more with Spamhaus's take on this issue. For our part, we sent a letter to the Maine legislature, looking to explain why we prohibit third-party lists-- any list compiled via this method would clearly NOT be a permission-based email list and we'd clamp down hard on anybody who tried to use a list like that via ExactTarget.

As Morgan Stewart and I explained in our letter, "Allowing advocacy or other groups to obtain email addresses from the Maine state government via a Freedom of Access request allows these groups to build spam lists that will cause harm to internet service providers and end consumers. The owners of those email addresses did not consent to have their email addresses shared with third parties or added to other email lists. Further, recipients of such emails will have to take an affirmative step to unsubscribe from those lists, which adds to the burden of those recipients.

"There is no known legitimate use for email address data in this context other than to compile a non-permission email list and send spam to it. Whether or not the topic of the spam is related to advocacy of something under Maine law is irrelevant; spam is still spam. It is our opinion that there are ample alternate methodologies under which advocacy or other groups may identify and contact Maine residents, without resorting to the most unwanted of email scourges; spam. Please don't enable the sending of spam to Maine residents by allowing their email addresses to be obtained from government agencies."

How about it, dear readers? When you contact somebody in government to provide feedback on an issue or apply for some sort of permit, do you think it's fair that groups can query the government for your email address and be able to add you to a list? And if you're an email marketer, do you really think this is a winning email strategy? Blasting people who didn't sign up for your emails? I sure don't.
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ExactTarget at WebTrends Engage

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Colby Cavanaugh
Hello!

We’re here at the WebTrends Engage 2010 conference this week, located down South in the Big Easy. As a Gold sponsor of the conference, ExactTarget is excited to be present at this SOLD OUT event!

Later today, I’ll be speaking briefly at the general session on multichannel marketing and the importance of creating engagement across all channels – not just email. You’ll even see a quick demonstration on shortcode and text-in campaigns. Make sure to tune in, as you’ll have a chance to win a Starbucks gift card!

Plus, stop by Booth #7 at the conference to receive a complimentary copy of The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2009, where ExactTarget was named a LEADER in email marketing.

With all this great stuff in store, we can’t wait to see you there!

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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!)

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Email Evolution 2010 Will Rock!

Thursday, January 28, 2010 by Joel Book
We at ExactTarget are proud to once again be the Exclusive Title Sponsor of the DMA’s Email Evolution Conference which kicks off on Monday, February 1st in Miami at the fabulous Eden Roc Hotel. Conference organizers tell me they are expecting a record turnout, and it’s easy to see why. This program is locked and loaded! And the lineup of speakers is off the hook.

Keynoting Email Evolution 2010 is Brian Harniman, EVP of Marketing and Distribution at Kayak. Harniman will offer a visionary look at the Kayak.com customer experience today and tomorrow with a focus on the role of email in relation to other channels.

Harniman will be one of many outstanding experts on email marketing including several ExactTarget clients and partners including Renee Middleton of Taco John’s, Kip Edwardson of Scotts Miracle-Gro, Andrew Kordek of Groupon, and Mike Corak of Mighty Interactive

The New Triangle Offense of 1to1 Marketing

If you want to see two outstanding examples of how brands are successfully using Email + Social Media + Mobile to attract and retain customers, plan to attend my session on Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be joined by Renee Middleton of Taco John’s and Kip Edwardson of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.

In our session, you’ll learn how marketers are:
  • Using Dynamic Content to personalize product information and offers to subscriber interests
  • Using Social Forward to empower “brand fans” to expand message distribution to friends
  • Using Mobile Messaging to accelerate response to offers and attract new subscribers

Register Today and Save $200!

I think the Email Evolution Conference will be one of the BEST conferences on email marketing you will attend this year. So if you haven’t registered yet, do it now!

Call Barbara Cruz in DMA Customer Service at 212.790.1500. Or go to the EEC2010 Registration page, enter the special code BEST, and you will save $200.

See you in sunny Miami!   
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Did You Know? Three Ways to get ExactTarget Customer Service

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio
In email marketing it's all about Channel Preferences! So did you know there are three different ways to get ExactTarget Customer Service from our Client Success Center: 

3Sixty Back Office
My favorite! If you are a member of 3sixty, you can click the Back Office Button and Sumbit a Case, Request an Update on a Case and also monitor case comments. 

Email to Case
Send an email to help@exacttarget.com and a case will be automatically created in our case management system.  You will get an email reply identifying your case number.

Good Old Fashioned Phone Call
  • US Customers can call 866-558-9823
  • UK Customers can call +44 (0) 808 101 7081
  • All other International Customers can call +44 (0) 207 291 8550

Lastly, I've found alot of the answers I need in 3sixty have already been asked (and answered!) but customers and ExactTarget employees. Make sure to check out 3sixty Community! 

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10 Tips for Successful Email Preheader Text

Monday, January 25, 2010 by Kristeen Hudson
In my previous blog post I explained what email preheader text is and why it is important. Below you will find some tips for creating your preheader text.


Tips for successful preheader text:

Call to Action – Unlike in your subject line, it’s ok (and encouraged) to use your call to action as your preheader text.

Be Positive - Use positive wording for preheader text.  For example instead of saying, “Having trouble viewing this email? Click here” try “view this email with images.” The design team has a great blog post about this.
 
Support – Make your preheader text support you subject line. If you remember from my post Improve Your Email Subject Line, the subject line should support what is in the email. It is all one big circle.

Character Count – Keep in mind the length of the preheader text that will be displayed in the inbox (before opening). This length varies depending on the email client. To give you a character count reference, Gmail shows about 100 characters for subject line (this number varies based on screen size) and preheader text collectively (so if you have a long subject line none of your preheader text will display) and the iPhone displays about 140 characters (in the traditional vertical view) regardless of subject length. There are also some email clients that don’t display any.

Proper Placement – The marketing preheader text (aka the call to action) should be in the top left of the email. This way it will show up in the inbox. Then your more functional preheader text (such as add to address book, unsubscribe, forward to a friend) should be in the top right corner.

Short and Sweet – The pre-header text is meant to be a short summary that the subscriber can quickly glace at. If you make the pre-header text to long it defeats the purpose.

Echo – A common mistake by marketers is repeating the subject line as the preheader text. This repetitive and doesn’t add any value.

Look and Feel – Preheader text is generally smaller then body copy, but it should still be readable. Keep in mind color choices (dark text with light background or reverse is ideal) and font size (minimum of 8pt font).

Be Creative – You are competing for attention in the inbox. Write preheader text that is going to grab the attention of your subscriber and is going to make them want to read your entire email.

Test, test, test – Like everything else in email marketing, your preheader line needs to be tested. Try an A/B split with different pre-headers and test to see which emails get the most opens and conversions.

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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.

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What is email preheader text and why is it important?

Thursday, January 21, 2010 by Kristeen Hudson
What is email preheader text?

Preheader text is the content of an email that displays before the header of an email. Normally preheader text includes a call to action phrase/link and a view as a webpage link.


Why preheader text is important:
  • If image blocking is enabled the preheader text may be one of the only (if not the only) things the subscriber can see.
  • Some mobile devices block images entirely making the preheader text even more important.
  • Some email clients such as Outlook 07, Gmail, and the iPhone display preheader text after the subject line in the inbox.
  • Generally speaking this is one of the first things that the subscriber sees before opening your email.
  • Preheader text provides a quick overview of your email. This helps the subscriber decide if they want to read it or not.
Stay tuned for my next blog post that will include tips for successful preheader text.

Want to know more about what is new with 1-to-1 email marketing? Check out the new whitepaper Five Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010.


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