Email Marketing Strategy

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!

Goodmail Confirms Yahoo Split

Monday, March 8, 2010 by Al Iverson

As I mentioned before, Yahoo is ending support for Goodmail CertifiedEmail.

Today, Goodmail confirmed this via an email notice to Goodmail clients and Goodmail partner ESPs. In the email, Goodmail says that "Goodmail and Yahoo failed to renew their service agreement. As a result, effective 3/24/10, Yahoo will no longer accept CertifiedEmail messages. We hope to restore the CertifiedEmail service at Yahoo in the not too distant future, but for now our customers are advised to plan on sending plain (non-CertifiedEmail) messages to Yahoo as of March 24."

We're already working with Yahoo to ensure a smooth transition off of Goodmail CertifiedEmail at Yahoo for any affected Goodmail-utilizing clients. I don't anticipate this being a painful process. Stay tuned; we'll be sure to post any updates as they become available.

3sixty Live User Groups Gives Digital Marketers a Local Forum to Collaborate

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Amanda Berkey

ExactTarget is excited to offer 3sixty Live user group program. In the past week, ExactTarget customers from California, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Ontario and the United Kingdom have signed up to become members or leaders in their local cities. The user group program offers a local collaboration forum for 1 to 1 marketing strategies. Go to exacttarget.com/3sixtylive to learn more about the program and register to join the user groups. We're looking for members and leaders!

As a product marketing manager at ExactTarget, I collaborate with my team all time right in our office to brainstorm solutions to everyday marketing challenges. We realize that many digital marketers using ExactTarget are working independently for their company. But you're not alone! 3sixty Live is a great opportunity to join other users in your city to share best practices and collaborate with other savvy marketers about drip marketing campaigns, CRM email integration, and social media integration. Check out our video to hear more.

Email Design Tip of the Week: Social Media in Email

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Andrea Smith

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

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

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

Twitterview: 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.

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

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.

The 7 Secrets to Recovering Abandoned Shopping Carts

Monday, February 8, 2010 by Joel Book

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

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

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

Our Interview with Adam Golumb of Smiley Cookie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Website Conversion: How have customers reacted?

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

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

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

Website Conversion: How do you measure success?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Marketing Budgets Continue Digital Migration, ROI Not the Main Driver

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Morgan Stewart

Today we released the results of a collaborative research project with Econsultancy looking at how marketers are allocating marketing budgets in 2010. I want to thank the team at Econsultancy. Linus Gregoriadis (@linusgreg) runs a great research team out of their London office and was a pleasure to work with on this project.

While 46% plan on increasing their overall marketing budgets in 2010, 66% are planning to increase budgets across digital channels. Running a crosstab analysis on the changes in overall budgets compared to changes in digital budgets, we found 28% of marketers are shifting at least some of their overall marketing budgets from traditional to digital channels.

A big part of the project was to understand not only how marketing budgets are being shifts, but why these shift are happening? The factors fueling this shift were a bit of a surprise. Reports that marketers are facing increased pressure to demonstrate positive ROI during the economic downturn led us to believe ROI would be the main driver fuelling a shift into digital channels. The findings of this report suggest otherwise. ROI is a factor, but there is another motivation playing a bigger role in 2010.

Check out this 2-minute video to hear what is fueling the shift toward digital channels:

Here is ExactTarget's free brief of the report.

The full report is available at http://econsultancy.com/reports/marketing-budgets-2010

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!)

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!

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.

Resolve to Keep Your Resolutions

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by Megan Sabine

Statistics show that of the 40% of people who make New Years resolutions, nearly 80% of those resolutions are discarded by Valentine’s Day.

80%. That’s a sobering statistic.

But it doesn’t have to be.

As marketers, we’re conditioned to setting goals, executing a plan, and measuring our results. Our New Years resolutions should follow the same pattern. And taking action is the key.

ExactTarget’s new whitepaper, 5 Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010, outlines the plan simply and succinctly:

Be helpful, not just social.
Engage your subscribers.
Treat subscribers like friends.
Design for your subscribers.
Get back to basics.

Although the pages on the calendar continue to turn, one true thing remains—good marketing is all about positive subscriber relationships. So, read through our recommended resolutions, post them by your PC, and resolve to make 2010 the Year of the Subscriber.
You have the power to make 2010 your best year yet.

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

Wednesday, January 20, 2010 by David Hoang

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow us on Twitter at @ExactTarget and @ETDesign.

Happy Tweeting!

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

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Chris Studabaker

Last post, I discussed current support and delivery methods for email + video. This time we're going to focus on some of the benefits and concerns and finish with a few closing thoughts. As I mentioned last time, please note that this blog centers on the technological considerations around email + video—the strategy around sending video in email (or not) is another discussion!

Benefits of email + video

Strong emotional appeal
Highly engaging
Personal, even user-generated content

Video offers incredible emotional appeal and a personal, highly engaging form of communication. Online video and social media offer the additional bonus of user-generated content, an incredibly effective tool for brand recognition and even advertising when used properly. Volumes have been written on this subject, and I recommend further reading on video as an advertising medium.

Concerns regarding email + video

Development cost and time
File size and bandwidth
Frame rate inconsistencies
Deliverability

Video use does come with some concerns, the foremost being that video represents a considerable development cost and time investment. Integrating video with email requires first having the video! Creating video content then requires the same commitment to brand standards and quality that comprises the rest of your brand experience.

Moving to technical issues, browsers interpret animated .gif frame rates differently, so it's important to test and ensure your .gif appears as desired in all browsers. File sizes and bandwidth are also a concern. A typical HTML email message may be no more than 150KB, including images, but even a simple animated .gif can double the total file size. To carry this further, sending a 1 MB video to one million subscribers can demand significant resources, and adding send frequency to the equation means we must be cognizant of the effect video can have on web hosting and bandwidth. The lack of video standards also raises concerns with deliverability. ISPs and email clients have different standards when determining spam/junk/trash messages, and the lack of generally accepted practices makes testing even more important.

These concerns can certainly be addressed successfully, but these points show it's important to remember that adding video to an email program represents far more than simply a new content block to plan.

Conclusion

Remember the message's primary goal
Consider video in content hierarchy
Know your audience
Subscriber expectations

In the end, we land on a mindset you're very familiar with: Subscribers Rule! Whether it's text headlines or Hollywood-style full motion video, know your subscribers and provide relevant content. Crafting engaging calls to action, nurturing a subscriber-centric content strategy, and establishing strong subscriber relationships are still primary concerns to email marketers, and video is a powerful new tool we can begin to use in accomplishing those goals.

You can check out Part 1 of this series for info on current support and delivery methods for email + video. Part 3 will share some interesting customer experiences and discuss ExactTarget's animated and static .gif testing using Connections '09 emails.

Haiti Relief Text Campaign from Red Cross Emphasizes Convenience and Immediacy of SMS

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Amanda Berkey

According to the Mashable blog, by 5:30pm EST Jan 14, only two days after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the Red Cross has raised an impressive $5 million dollars from their Text campaign. If you were on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites this week, you may have seen the outcries to donate $10 by texting "Haiti" to the shortcode 90999. If you do the quick math, that's 500,000 mobile subscribers that have used text messaging to donate to the Haitian relief efforts led by the Red Cross. The blog post also shows an SMS message flow explaining how easy it is for a mobile subscriber to text in "Haiti" and then "Yes" to confirm their donation. In two short SMS messages, a single person is able to contribute to the larger cause from anywhere!

As the product marketing manager for the SMS portfolio at ExactTarget, I'm very impressed, but not surprised by the results of this SMS campaign. When I meet with customers who are strategizing about their 1 to 1 Marketing campaigns that include email, SMS, web, and social media, we discuss the reasons that SMS messaging to communicate with your subscribers are effective.

We are in an era when people are more likely to have a mobile phone rather than a traditional land line. And mobile phones are something that people do not leave home without. Whether you have a smart phone or standard mobile phone, SMS text plans is now considered basic communication. How many times have you ditched leaving a person you were calling a voicemail to send them a simple text message? Many people outside of the business world forgo the expensive data plans to receive email and web from their phone, but gladly pay for their SMS messaging plans.

Including text messaging in your 1 to 1 marketing strategy is a powerful way to reach your audience can have huge rewards:

SMS messaging is immediate and direct: by nature of the US standard of 160 characters, text messages are short and concise. They reach the person that needs the quick information. And responding to or reading a text message takes only seconds and it doesn't require you to shift your focus too much. You can even do it in a meeting! *Wink*
Text messaging campaigns are always available when a person is interested: savvy marketers know that it takes massive effort to get a prospect engaged in their brand. Having a text campaign that a mobile subscriber can respond to a call-to-action at the emotional high of the interest, can be the difference if they ever participate or not. Let's face it, when they get back to their computer, even a geniunely interested person is likely to forget that they wanted to sign up for your program.
SMS can augment email marketing efforts: the best example of this approach is from our customer, Pier 1 Imports, who follows up with email drip marketing from new subscribers they captured from their text sweepstakes at college bookstores. Leveraging both email and text messaging for marketing campaigns can empower you to send relevant information using both messaging channels

The recent example of a non-profit organization raising donations and enabling the general public to act is proof that SMS messaging when combined with social media and email can have incredible impact and rewards. For more thoughts about getting started with Text Messaging check out our recent webinar.

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

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Chris Studabaker

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

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

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

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

Delivery methods

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

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

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

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

Email Marketing Resolutions: Back to Basics with Bookisms

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 by Dawn DeVirgilio

We are going strong on our email marketing resolutions so far, and this week I got to sit down and Twitterview (a twitter interview) the one and only Joel Book, our Director of eMarketing Education.

In our latest whitepaper, Five Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010, Joel provides insights into how email marketers should get back to the basics in 2010.

1. ExactTarget: @joelbook In 2010 what is the one thing email marketers can to do get back to the basics? #ET2010

Joel: Develop “needs-based” strategy for delivering info & offers that are relevant to customers. Content relevance is key.

2. ExactTarget: How can marketers better leverage welcome emails?

Joel: Say “thank you” by offering a discount coupon for new subscribers. Or for B2B, provide a link to a popular whitepaper.

3. ExactTarget: We’ve seen a few folks talk about Preference Centers recently. Explain the #emailmarketing value.

Joel: Pref[erence] Centers make it easy for customers to identify their info needs/interests. Use this to personalize email content.

4. ExactTarget: What companies do you see getting ‘more juice for the squeeze’ with Social Forward?

Joel: Any company with “brand fans”! Social Forward makes it easy for subscribers to share. Nothing beats word-of-mouth!

5. ExactTarget: And lastly, How does getting back to the basics invoke the Subscribers Rule philosophy?

Joel: When you “serve” subscribers by providing useful information that aids their purchase decision or product

If you want to learn more about getting back to the basics, or get more simple, step-by-step recommendations on how to achieve your 1 to 1 Business Email Marketing goals download
Five Resolutions Every Marketer Must Make in 2010.

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