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Coupons Boost Email Response Rates

Thursday, November 19, 2009 by Joel Book
Retailers and consumer packaged goods marketers that include coupons in consumer email communications are experiencing higher open and click-through rates.

As reported in the November 19th eMarketer Daily Newsletter, “There is a pronounced difference between open rates for e-mails that include a coupon offer and those that do not. Open rates of around 24% to 25% for coupon e-mails dropped to just 16% to 18% for non-coupon campaigns.”

Open Rates for Coupon Offers vs. Other Mailings

The eMarketer article also confirms that “Higher open rates for coupon offers translated into higher click rates as well, though the difference was much smaller. emails with coupons that could be used online were most likely to be clicked, at 4%.”

Click Rates for Coupon Offers vs. Other Mailings in the US

As coupon use expands, I believe those brands that are able to personalize offers to the product needs and purchase behavior of individual consumers will have a distinct advantage over those brands that practice a “one-size-fits-all” coupon strategy. To learn more about technology that enables marketers to deliver relevant and timely offers – including coupons -- based on email subscriber data and behavior, check out ExactTarget Live Offers at ExactTarget.com

What About Mobile Coupons?

Are mobile coupons ready for prime time? Not quite, but we’re getting there fast – really fast. According to a recent Mobile Marketing Survey of 511 consumers by HipCricket, 83% of US consumers say their favorite brand has yet to market to them via their mobile phone, even though 37% say they would be interested in participating in a mobile customer loyalty program from a brand they trust.

This indicates growing consumer interest in mobile marketing and represents a significant -- but largely untapped -- opportunity for brands to connect with customers on mobile devices.  “With consumer interest in mobile marketing continuing to steadily increase, it’s clear that now is the time for brands to launch and execute their mobile strategy and programs,” said Scott Debson, HipCricket’s VP of brand solutions.

It seems that brands are starting to listen. Ten million digital coupons were redeemed in the first six months of 2009, up 25% from a year ago, according to Inmar, a coupon-processing company. But they still account for less than half a percent of all coupons distributed.

Top Tips for Using Mobile Coupons

If you’re looking for practical insight on how to use mobile coupons effectively, check back here to see my next post, “Five tips for using Mobile Coupons to Drive in-store Traffic.”

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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!

Related Posts:
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Gmail
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Outlook 2007
Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Hotmail

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Spend more..Make more?

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 by Shelly Griffin
Marketers live in a very strange world.  We know that marketing drives revenue - whatever your definition of marketing may be.  Whether handing out fliers on the street corner, shouting from the rooftops, or implementing the most sophisticated Internet search optimization campaign leveraging every keyword known to man - you are marketing.  You have to tell someone something about your products/services in order for them to know to buy from you.  Otherwise you find yourself sitting all alone just hoping that someone somewhere happened to notice the sign you hung on your door. 

The weird thing about our world is that marketing budgets are generally the first thing cut when times get tough.  I've been in sales and marketing for over 15 years and have had to endure this trend a few times myself.  It is never fun and it never makes sense.  You find yourself muttering "but...wait...if we don't tell anyone about what we're selling...sales will decline further...and then you'll cut my budget again...and but...wait..."

So I was amused at an article in eMarketer Daily this week on this very topic - "Marketing Spending Pays Off for Small Biz".  Funny finding from this study - companies that spend more, make more!  I love this quote most of all "Use of e-mail marketing in particular correlated with expected revenue growth."  So there you go...whatever the economic climate...keep shouting from rooftop and from your emails.
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Drip Model Marketing– Is that a leaky faucet or your email marketing software?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 by Kristeen Hudson
Phrases like “drip campaign”, “automated email drip”, “drip email program”, and “drip email” are thrown around ExactTarget a lot. This is because ExactTarget is in the business of sending email, especially automated email drips.  However, everyone may not understand what a drip campaign is.  Let me tell you a little bit about the basics of drip marketing.

Drip marketing comes from the phrase drip irrigation, which is where crops are watered in small amounts over a long period of time. This same concept is applied to marketing and is called drip model marketing. Customers or potential customers are given small amounts of information over a long period of time.

The idea behind a drip campaign is that it takes between 3 and 30 impressions of a brand to make it sink in. When creating a drip campaign its important to have a consistent brand with varying messages to help develop the reputation of your company.

Drip emails are the most common type of drip communication, however there are other ways to communicate in a drip campaign. Some other options are - voice messages, SMS messaging, and direct mail.

Drip model marketing is a good way to help avoid always trying to sell a product and a good excuse to provide content that will engage subscribers. Think of this as a great way to nurture your potential clients. Drip marketing can be used for business to consumer or business to business email marketing solutions.

The good news is ExactTarget is one of the best email marketing software providers for creating automated email integration. To learn more about ExactTarget checkout their website.
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Excitement in the World of iLab

Monday, November 9, 2009 by Kyle Rechin

With the 135 release on November 6th, iLab is rolling out new and exciting products and user interface updates.  Not only does iLab let you be one of the firsts to adopt these products and features, we allow you to do so for free!!

New to iLab are the user interface updates Save Email as a Template and Streamlined Content Creation Tools. Save Email as a Template allows clients to quickly leverage their polished emails by creating reusable templates. Streamlined Content Creation Tools will simplify the ways in which templates, surveys and emails are created while maintaining the perfect balance between sophistication and ease of use.

We are also very excited to have released Twitter Integration on November 6th. This innovation allows clients to extend the reach of their one-to-one marketing programs to Twitter. With a single send, you will be able to reinforce email messages with a coordinating Twitter status or execute a Twitter campaign alongside an email program. The Twitter integration is the next messaging channel in ExactTarget’s expanding capabilities across email, mobile, social and sites. We are now recruiting current ExactTarget clients to help us test the all-new Twitter Integration, but do not delay because spots will be filled by November 11th.
 

 

Check out iLab today in ExactTarget’s 3Sixty to take advantage of all these new features, or search iLab to adopt other new innovations. Also make sure to join the iLab group on 3Sixty to get real time updates on what’s coming next.

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Design Tip of the Week: Email Rendering in Gmail

Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Andrea Smith
Email Rendering in GmailThis 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”.

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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.
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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.
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E-Mail Plus is the Key to Success

Wednesday, October 28, 2009 by Kevin Nuest
Our very own Joel Book recently wrote an article that was featured in Online Strategies Magazine. The article, E-Mail Plus, addresses how to integrate your email efforts with other vital marketing campaigns, platforms, and tools to drive extraordinary results.

In the article, Joel talks about how companies like Johnston & Murphy, Pet Place, and the Cable Shopping Network leverage Email + Analytics. Also discussed is how companies like Carmax, Powell's Books, and Dreamfields Pasta successfully integrate a Email + Social Media strategy into their marketing efforts.

To see more amazing examples, you can check out Joel's posts about Motorcycle SuperStore, Mike's Carwash, and Gordman's.
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The Effect of Email Engagement on Inbox Delivery

Monday, October 26, 2009 by Chip House
You're likely not surprised to hear that 90% of the email ISPs have to deal with is spam, which has driven them to constantly evolve and improve their filtering processes. Competition for users with mail accounts hasn't abated, meaning that the ISP that does the best job of keeping the inbox clean and relevant wins.

In a recent article at eM+C titled: "The Effect of Email Engagement on Inbox Delivery" I discuss the balancing act marketers need to deal with at major ISPs.  In this article I mention: "For marketers, this means that gone are the days when you can email away willy-nilly while ignoring what’s happening on the other end. You need to monitor all of your campaigns for engagement, looking primarily for opens and clicks, which indicate that subscribers care about your email. If they don’t, over time the sum total of those ignoring you may outweigh the ones that are paying attention to you. If, in addition to this, some portion of your target audience continues to vote your email as spam, you could end up in the spam folder."

We have evidence showing that Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and AOL.com all monitor the engagement level of your email recipients as part of their email filtering algorithms. We've known for years that ISPs monitor user complaints, but now the implicit actions of your subscribers are just as important as the explicit actions. I like to think of the process as being a large scale used to distinguish the mail that recipients want from the mail that they don't want.
Engagement Scale

Al Iverson hit this in his recent blog titled, "The Rise of Emperor Engagement." In it he states,  "If your mail is going to the bulk folder at a top ISP, it's probably going to be because recipients don't care about your email. They're not engaged."

The good news is that focusing on creating content and offers that your subscribers want will not only boost your deliverability, it will also boost your email revenues!
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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?
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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.)
 

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Across the Pond

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 by Amanda Cross
I can hardly believe I work in a multi-national company.

I mean, I've worked in multi-national companies before--my last company had an office in Exeter, England--but I wasn't there when it happened. Back then, it just meant that I had to come into the office early to get one phone calls with them and learn to drop the serial comma when I edited their documents. Now, it means I have actual friends there who will show me around if I ever get a chance to visit.

ExactTarget expanded into England via the acquisition of Keymail Marketing, already an established partner in Europe. Our application already supported multiple character sets for your email and landing pages messages in languages other than English, as well as sending SMS and voice messages to many different countries. But with this move, ExactTarget becomes an even better partner for your multi-national marketing campaigns.

Because we're there man.
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Is Mobile Email Driving Consumers to a Disappointing Experience?

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 by Morgan Stewart
As outlined in our recent whitepaper, Is Email Marketing Endangered?, Smartphones are a major force behind consumers increasing consumption of email. As such, the importance of mobile email for email marketers will continue to increase. While the solutions remain less than ideal, Mark Brownlow has done a wonderful job of summarizing the challenges of mobile email and linking to useful resources on the topic.

But getting mobile email to work is only the first step. Assuming your email is successful in getting consumers to your site, they need to be able to actually do something. This appears to be a challenge. According to new research from Equation Research commissioned by Gomez Inc., end users are disappointed with their mobile web experience.

Among findings of the report:

60% of consumers have encountered a problem when accessing a website from their mobile phone during the past 12 months

The number one reason cited was slow load times (73%). There are a number of factors that may impact load times that are out of marketers’ control. However, the other top reasons are all things that marketers should be able to test and rectify:
 
    * 51% experienced errors or crashes on the mobile site
    * 48% said formatting of the mobile site made it difficult to use
    * 45% had issues with the site functioning as expected

Among common formatting errors, the study identified content that is too large or too small for the screen, links that do not work, and overlapping or illegible text and graphics.

Poor mobile experiences impact brand perception
Consumers have high expectations of mobile sites—they should load quickly, look good, and function properly. The consequences of not meeting these expectations are also high. While it makes sense that consumers would be less likely to visit the site again (61%) and that they would visit a competitors site (40%), the negative impact on the brand at large is more alarming:

* 23% would be less likely to purchase from that company
* 19% would have a negative overall impression of the company
* 18% would be less likely to go to the company’s website on their regular computer

If mobile experiences impact consumers’ willingness to interact with companies at large, we can’t think of mobile as simply another channel. It is part of the communication landscape at large. It is not about developing mobile campaigns, it is about facilitating users ability to get the information they need at their convenience.

Thus, not only do optimizing mobile email and optimizing the mobile web go hand in hand, but both of these go hand in hand with optimizing our traditional email and web experiences as well. It’s all connected.

Take a look at the full report Why the Mobile Web is Disappointing End-Users.
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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.

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Mobile Developers Solution Showcase

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Amanda Cross
Ratul Shah is the presenter for the first part of the solution showcase. Unlike every other presenter that's talked in this room so far today, Ratul is maneuvering through the crowd with the hand-held mic. What a showman. :)

Industry Standard Terms
  • SMS = short message service, aka text messaging. It has a 160 character limit.
  • MO = mobile originated = a message sent FROM a phone
  • MT = mobile terminated = a message sent TO a phone
  • short code = a 5- or 6-digit number that you buy from a carrier to send messages to your customers. http://www.usshortcodes.com
  • vanity short code = a short code that spells something out, such as our, ETSMS
  • random short code = a short code that doesn't intentionally spell anything. These cost slightly less.
  • private short code = only your traffic goes through this code
  • shared short code = a code that you share with other SMS users. Keywords differentiate your traffic from the traffic of other people on the shared short codes.
  • MMA = Mobile Marketing Association http://mmaglobal.com/policies. A group that creates guidelines for United States mobile marketing.
  • Aggregator = a third party company that maintains connections between the carriers and the content providers. When we provisioning a short code for you, we work with an aggregator to get you approved for all carriers.
ExactTarget SMS Architecture
You create JOIN, VOTE, HELP, UNSUBSCRIBE and other kinds of actions that subscribers use to send you MO messages to get in on your mobile messages.

Unfortunately, you can't create keywords or actions in the API at this point. You can initiate SMS sends through the API, however.

System Terms
  • Subscriber key = unique identifier for subscribers. Allows you to identify subscribers by phone number instead of email address.
  • Publication list = contains subscribers who opt-in using their mobile device
  • Data extension = contains subscribers whom you import through the GUI or the API  
Implementing Text
  • Keyword response - text in and receive a response
  • Mobile capture - captures email address for list growth
  • Vote and check vote count - submit your vote. poll the response
  • Outbound (with opt-in) - a message from ExactTarget to the mobile device
  • Custom campaigns
Wow, Ratul goes through a lot of content fast, and a lot of these slides are very graphics heavy and difficult to translate to blog. Thankfully, everyone at the conference is supposed to be able to get the slides.

FanMail Solution

Dave DeVore - CEO FanMail marketing
Josiah Kaiser - Senior Operations and Solutions Consultant
Tim Kauble - ExactTarget product specialist and world-class AMPscript guru

FanMail Marketing is using SMS to capture email addresses. Initially they were asking subscriber to text their email addresses in this format:

krohn email@example.com to 88769

but they found that customers found this confusing and made errors that prevented the system from capturing their information. So for the next phase, they made it into a 2-stage process to make it more like a conversation. In the new setup, subscribers text in in this format:

stubbs to 88769

then the system sends back an text saying something to the effect of, "Thanks for your interest. Reply to this message with your email address to join our mailing list." When the subscriber responds with the email address, it is added to the email list. The customer gets an email immediately welcoming them to the list, and then any future mailings to that list.

The SMS message that was sent back after the first message included AMPscript to trigger the welcome email.

The first use case resulted in more errors than the second, and people weren't willing to try to sign up more than once. A limitation of both use cases is that it only captures people's email addresses, omitting other important subscriber information that would be useful for relevant messaging .

In the third phase of FanMail's SMS evolution, they integrated their SMS with landing pages to allow the capture of more subscriber information. People text in:

butter to 88769

The system responds with a message saying to respond with an email address. When the subscriber replies with the email address, the system sends them an email with a link to a landing page built with the Smart Capture feature.  People complete the Smart Capture form and now the system has information to send really personalized information. For example, this band (Hot Buttered Rum) uses the subscriber's ZIP code to let the subscriber know about upcoming concerts in their area.

What FanMail discovered was that going through this process aggregated higher quality subscribers who were more likely to be engaged with the marketing campaigns and therefore higher ROI on their marketing efforts.

The future phases of this SMS evolution may allow subscriber to provide attribute information via SMS, such as ZIP code to empower the functionality above.

Another thing that FanMail has discovered is that subscribers are willing to send you SMS messages if they're interested in what you have to offer, but they don't like for you to begin the SMS conversation.

Custom Use Case
Tim Kauble took the stage for the final portion of this presentation. Poor Tim--his phone junked out on him this morning and his data connection didn't work, so we're seeing a modified version of his presentation. Typical of technology!

Tim talked about designing a system to allow him to manage his own tasks using text messages. He wanted to accomplish the following:
  • Accept tasks
  • Assign those tasks
  • Assign priority, including deadlines
  • Expose the tasks to landing pages so that he could see them all
  • Support multiple methods of input, such a forwarding emails to an endpoint that generates a task with the content of the email.
Tim demonstrated texting in to the system to find out how many tasks he had. He had 30, by the way, plus the system also sent him a message to stop messing around with text messages and get back to work. :)

Tim also brought up the landing page where we could see his lengthy task list--such is the life of the ExactTarget employee!
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Live Blog: SMS Text Messaging for Marketers Helps Increase Subscriber Engagement

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Amanda Berkey
Text MessagingToday at Connections 2009, I spoke on an industry panel about how SMS Text Messaging fits into the one-to-one marketing campaigns. We had four customers on the panel share their mature SMS marketing strategies. Hearing from the US Navy, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Pier 1 Imports, and Hyperdrive Interactive, the attendees heard one common element throughout each story. In every case, text messages were used to improve subscriber engagement, marked with explicit permission.

The reason why SMS mobile marketing is so successful is because people always have their mobile phones with them, but they may not have their computers handy. People don't leave home without their mobile phones. And as marketers are looking for ways to set themselves apart in the marketplace, SMS mobile marketing can help give them an edge.

Based on the 2009 Channel Preference Study whitepaper, consumers surveyed say they want to receive SMS mobile messages with expressed permission for companies to send transactional messages, time-sensitive alerts such as flight notifications, and operational alerts such as banking messages for suspicious account activities. The key learning for marketers to is understand which messaging channel their subscribers prefer for different types of messages.

A best practice to solve this challenge is to collect your subscriber's preference for marketing channels they prefer for various message types in the future. For marketers considering SMS text messaging, the first step is supporting inbound Text to capture new subscribers to your future drip marketing campaigns.

Capitalizing on real-time interest when you have prospects' attention at a live event or retail location, gives the marketer new possibilities. Seasoned marketers know that offering incentives to potential texters helps drive people to participate in these new campaigns.

When Pier 1 launched their first SMS campaign they captured new subscribers in a younger demographic for future email marketing campaigns. Subsequent drip marketing emails featured a message with a youthful tone and unique offers to help drive conversion. Read more from their story in Mobile Marketer. Texters were incented to engage in order to enter the sweepstakes to win a free Pier 1 Papasan Chair.

Text messaging is all over Connections this year, powered by ExactTarget Text. Check out SMS marketing program examples.

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Create, Execute, and Optimize Your One-to-One Marketing.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Kevin Nuest
This is a live blog from the Strategy session at Connections 09

Panelists:
Carrie Jensen of ExactTarget
Dela Quist of Alchemy Worx
Chris Murray of ExactTarget

8:42 - Chris Murray of ExactTarget says “Make Time for Strategy.

8:43 – How to get started:
1.    Where are you now?
2.    Where do you want to go?
3.    How will you get there?

8:44 – Assess, analys, and audit where you are now.

8:45 – Make sure you are focusing on Deliverability and getting into the inbox. If you don’t know where you stand with the ISPs then you are in trouble.

8:46 – Survey your customers and ask them if they think you are sending them emails too often.

8:47 - How sophisticated are you? Are you a batch and blast or do you have a true one-to-one marketing campaign. How relevant are you?

8:49 – Define your goals. Set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely)

8:50 – Solidify the specific segments and targets you are going after. Make sure you communicated with these audiences in their preferred channel.

8:51 – Ask yourself, how do I keep the customers engaged once I have them?

8:53 – On a whiteboard, layout your target segments across the top of the board and develop campaigns down the side that will go to each segment.

8:55 – Don’t forget to look at the “end-to-end.” Make sure the subscribers has a cohesive experience from the time you obtain them as a subscriber all the way through their life cycle.

8:56 – Dela says that he faces the same problem you do, “No matter how hard you try and what you do, numbers always seem to be going down.”

9:00 – You are looking at the wrong metrics. Opens and clicks are the final score but has nothing to do with the customers.

9:01 – Dela looks at open reach. At the end of a campaign, if a subscriber opens at least one email then they are counted in the open reach.

9:02 – Also track the frequency that subscribers are interacting with your campaigns.

9:03 – Open reach and open rate tactics and strategy are very different.

9:04 – Let you subscribers know what is coming next in your campaign. If you are going to send them a spring email, let them know so they can begin to anticipate it.

9:06 – In 12 months there are over 73,000 ways a subscriber can interact with your campaign. For each email, a subscriber can open an email, not open, open once, click…

9:09 – Don’t compare yourself to the Amazons of the world. Don’t beat yourself up trying to get the same level of customer interaction from your emails as Amazon has had success doing.

  Follow Kevin Nuest on Twitter

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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.  
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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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