Every afternoon, I receive a message with links to press releases and industry articles from our PR firm.  It's a great way to stay on top of what's happening with ExactTarget and in the email marketing industry.  All from the comfort of my uncomfortable office chair.

As I perused through today's issue, I noticed yet another article about mobile email marketing.  While reading the article, I realized that something was amiss: it's just not that simple.  There are too many factors (i.e. phone type, operating system, email client) and too many scenarios (i.e. checking on the run, reading in full, saving for later) to provide any type of blanket statements (i.e. design like this, segment like that) about mobile email marketing.

We know people use it.  And we know that as marketers we should pay attention to that.  But beyond that, we should proceed with caution. 

Last month, Morgan Stewart, our Director of Research & Strategy, wrote a great article about the complications of mobile email marketing -- and how there is no easy fix.  And last summer, our strategic services team conducted the most extensive consumer study to date on mobile email marketing.  The results may surprise you.

For example, our research shows that some recipients are actually thrown off by mobile-specific text on the messages.  And designing for "mobile-only reading" assumes that your recipient isn't going to open the message again on their computer (which many recipients report they do!)

That research is still available in ExactTarget's Email Marketing for the Third Screen Whitepaper.  Yes, I know it's a whitepaper (ugh!) and that it's lengthy (yuk!).  But if you're serious about mobile email marketing, it's well worth the time to read. 

To date, I have yet to find another resource that provides so much data to back up so many recommendations about mobile email marketing.  And no, Morgan didn't bribe me to say that.*  This article from February, also on the DMNews blog, provides some good general (and cautionary!) recommendations. 

Cheers,
Ashley
Manager, Marketing Communications

P.S. We're working hard with our strategists to finalize a brand new whitepaper this month on consumer messaging preferences.  If you liked Email Marketing for the Third Screen, you'll definitely want to keep an eye out for it!

* I accept bribe payment in the forms of celebrity gossip magazine subscriptions and gift certificates for my local spa.

Not too long ago, I was a marketer who was a slave to a to-do list and a "get the thing out" mentality, rather than a slave to my client base.  I was trapped in a continuous loop of - "this is a great idea but how can I ever find the time or budget space to do a full-on marketing campaign?" As I listened to marketing expert after marketing expert discuss how to optimize your eMarketing program at the first stop on ExactTarget's Route1to1 City tour in Atlanta this past Tuesday, it became clear that the answer to my question was to a change my mindset and finally put off the to-do list and put on a truly integrated, engaging campaign.

Here were my wake-up call email marketing moments that made me say - "Wow, I was doing it wrong for so long."

• "Your website can no longer be a digital brochure, it has to be an engaging place where you can drive conversion," said Joel Book, ExactTarget's Director of eMarketing Education.
  
• "It's time to stop reacting and start taking a pro-active approach to your marketing campaigns," said Jeff Rohrs, ExactTarget's Vice President of Agency and Search Marketing.
  
• "If I receive an email and I don't know who it is, I immediately delete it, so why would we expect our customers to be any different?  I received an email from Continental on my phone that was mobile friendly and I was able to check-in just by replying to a text message - now that's engagement," said Jeanniey Mullen Founder of the Email Experience Council (eec) and Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Zinio Systems and VIV Magazine.

The highlight of the day for me was listening to Nick Godfrey, from Customer Portfolios (an email marketing agency partner with ExactTarget) discuss how his company utilized ExactTarget's email marketing software to build Dunkin' Donuts' loyalty program from the ground up.  He talked about the unique challenges of creating a 1 to 1 marketing customer loyalty program. 

A Dunkin' Donuts customer can receive rewards depending on how many times they visit a specific Dunkin' Donuts store each week.  As an example, if I go in Mondays and Wednesdays, the system is smart enough to trigger an email to that patron offering them a $1.00 credit towards the loyalty account, encouraging a third visit  This type of email marketing tool removes the time and budget burden most marketers are facing.

Shrinking budgets have led many marketers to search around for the best way to drive customers to their web site, but after attending this seminar, I realized that your marketing campaign must be engaging, and compelling, giving users a reason to come and stay on your site.  There is too much information out there for your message to get lost. 

My top four takeaways from Route 1 to 1:

• No more digital brochures - they don't work
• Give them a good reason to engage with your brand
• Truly powerful marketing will treat each customer as a unique individual, who has unique need
• Discussing Dunkin' Donuts leads to binge eating on my part

If you are a marketer like me, who knew what they wanted to do, but weren't sure how to do it, you really should think about coming to the ExactTarget Route 1 to 1: The new eMarketing essentials event.  Coming up next are Chicago and Cincinnati...its time to stop being a slave to our to-do lists. 

Gotta run, Dunkin' Donuts just opened here in Indianapolis and I want my free dollar. 

Todd McCall, PR Manager

So I just had a rather troubling realization: I'm officially a blog hog. When I hopped onto our blog today to read Ashley's new post about triggered email, I scrolled down and saw about the last 17 posts in a row...were mine.

Well, friends, here's #18. Take that.

As our InSight readers know, this month we're focusing on triggered email. Though many people assume triggered email only applies to marketing (like eNewsletters or sales reminders), that's just the tip of the iceberg. Triggered email can encompass everything from eBills and account notifications to shipping confirmations and abandoned cart remarketing messages.

But how many of you marketers out there are using the same email system as your operations or account services teams?...*crickets*...

Well you're in luck -- we're hosting a webinar May 1st that'll help you (and anyone else using email at your organization) understand how triggered email fits into your overall business strategy. A combined effort from our own thought leaders and client Danskin, this webinar will give you a new outlook on triggered email.

So register for The New Breed of Triggered Email Marketing Webinar and see what all the fuss is about. And bring that developer from upstairs -- and your favorite customer support rep -- and maybe even your account services director too, just for good measure. Plus, I'm working on a cool new deliverable for attendees -- so you'll hurt my feelings if you don't come!

...*crickets*...

Yeah, I'm needy like that.

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

Attention ExactTarget Customers!

Registration for Connections ‘08, ExactTarget’s annual email marketing user conference, is open!  If you are an ExactTarget customer you don’t want to miss this value-packed event that will appeal to those responsible for email marketing strategy and execution at all levels—from Vice-President to Email Marketing Specialist to Web Developer.

Save the date, September 23 – 25, 2008, and plan to join ExactTarget in Indianapolis, Indiana for the premier email marketing user conference, Connections '08. 

Register now to receive the Early Bird Discount!

Melinda Baxter, Director of Marketing Services

We talk about email design as the seamless merging of design and technology to deliver powerful business results.  A few of the Designers at ExactTarget sat down to answer some questions about the “day in the life” of an email marketing designer that loves the challenge to deliver business success through design.

What is the background of an Email Marketing Designer?

I have always been a “visual” person, graduating from I.U.’s Herron School of Art and Design with a degree in Visual Communications. I am a designer of brands, print ads, logos, and all types of marketing communications.  My inner geek loves to bring my design skills to pixel perfection.
- Justine
__________________________________________________________________________

I have been designing since I was a kid – illustrations, characters, computer graphics, and animation.  I studied Animation at Purdue’s school of Technology bringing my love of design to computerized mediums. Since then I have been addicted to moving innovative design into powerful interactive media.
- Tim
__________________________________________________________________________

I have designed since birth – never without a sketch pad, moving from crayons to oils to Adobe Creative Suite. I have a fine arts background that enables me to design convincingly and artfully to deliver business results.
- Lacey
____________________________________________________________________________

My background is in graphic design - print, web, motion graphics, video editing.  I have a good aptitude to learn new media and skills and love the challenge each new media offers. I have always been customer-facing in my career, so understand how to focus on the business opportunity the design needs to solve.
- Chris
____________________________________________________________________________

So, why did you choose to become a designer for email marketing?

I love to solve customer business challenges through visual communications.  Taking my love and appreciation of design to build an intelligent, highly motivating communication is a blend of my passions.
- Justine
____________________________________________________________________________

I am a problem-solver.  The opportunity to master the ever-changing email marketing landscape through a combination of design and html coding nuances is a great daily job for me.  I have the tenacity to keep trying until the email is the best it can be.
- Tim
_____________________________________________________________________________

Email is the most pervasive and impactful communication medium today.  For a designer the palette is rich with creative opportunity to explore and test its potential.  It is an entrepreneurial dream that continues to expand as the environment changes constantly.
- Chris
____________________________________________________________________________

As an artist, I thrive on exploring new ways to express ideas in design that create a response.  I have the opportunity to design for numerous small and large companies, across a wide range of industries to keep my talent fresh and evolving.
- Lacey
_____________________________________________________________________________

What skills do you think serve you best as an Email Marketing Designer?

Definitely design skills.  Working for top companies across the world, they expect great design interpretation of their brand.  It is really important that my designs are synergistic with their web site and offline communications to build trust in email.  Yet, email is its own unique medium with a very different design strategy to be successful.
- Lacey
___________________________________________________________________________

Agreed. Design skill is really the starting point.  Every medium has a unique environment to take into consideration, and email is certainly challenging due to the lack of standards around how the email will display from one email client to another (AOL, Hotmail, Gmail, Outlook, etc...).  Understanding how HTML renders – and taking this into consideration as you design - is a necessity.
- Justine
_____________________________________________________________________________

Hunger and persistence to find solutions to design and build emails in this standards-free environment is really important.  It isn’t an afterthought, but an integrated part of the design process.  Testing is an on-going process, for each and every email design.
- Tim
_____________________________________________________________________________

There is on-going need for retention of cumulative knowledge to stay best-in-class in this constantly changing environment.  Knowledge from testing results, changes in the industry, consumer trends and design trends need to be incorporated into all designs.  It’s about results, not just attractive designs.
- Chris

ExactTarget's growing -- and fast.

That's why we created Catapult and Slingshot -- two college recruiting programs helping us build a pipeline of top-tier hires. Catapult places recent grads into a full-time rotational program, while Slingshot gives current students a summer internship complete with at least two "resume worthy" projects.

After months of recruiting, we brought select groups of students to Indianapolis for Finalist Night, an evening of "speed interviews," group case studies, and office tours (ok...and about 900 lbs of pasta at Buca di Peppo). After several late nights, our managers narrowed the field, matched students with projects, and extended offers to 4 Catapult and 6 Slingshot candidates.

And guess what, they all accepted.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you've done any college recruiting recently, you know it's fiercely competitive. You'll need to put your game face on -- recruiting is serious business.

Here's a smattering of techniques we used this year:

• Website: Two microsites, streaming video, tips & tricks and more. Welcome to the hub of college recruiting at ExactTarget.
• Email: Through on-campus events, microsites (thank you Web Collect!), and our online application engine, we launched an email nurturing program to educate and engage students. Each email conveyed a consistent program message and pushed candidates to our microsites for additional information and video. And it worked. We saw open rates upwards of 70% and click-throughs upwards of 50%. Not sure about you, but I'll take those metrics anyday!
• Print: We developed a new deliverable affectionately known as "The Little Brown Book," a quirky, tactile copy concoction to help seal the deal. 
• Face-to-Face: We talk the talk, so it's just as important we walk the walk. The personality and message we conveyed all season was reflected at Finalist Night, in our personal communications with students, and -- most importantly -- in the experience we delivered.

How many of you used an integrated marketing plan to bolster your HR efforts? Getting the right talent in the door is 99% of the battle. They'll do the rest.

Signing off,

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

When speaking with ExactTarget clients about integration, it’s rare that we discuss email design best practices.  Typically, our focus is on how, why, when, and where to integrate ExactTarget with other business processes.  In general, I leave the email design questions to our talented Design and Strategy teams! 

However, there is one situation I’ve encountered where email design enters the integration conversation: the question, “What has to be done for me to change the email that is being sent out via an automated process?” 

In the past, there were two solutions for this situation.  The first was to stop the existing automated process, which had to be completed by a developer.  Then, the marketer could modify the existing email and work with the developer to start the process up again.  This was cumbersome for most companies, because developer resources are typically scarce and it takes too long to coordinate the effort. 

The second option was to create a new email (producing a new unique email ID) which was then provided to the developer to update the automated process code.  This second solution was usually the path clients took in order to get the switch scheduled at the correct time.  While the solution worked, it was certainly not ideal – especially to the marketers, whose changes are typically time-sensitive.

ExactTarget listened to the pain this situation caused and solved it with our triggered email interactions.  Triggered emails are typically the emails that are automated and they’re usually the emails that change frequently.  To address this issue, we give creative and automation change control to the marketer. 

After the initial API call is written and in production, the developer has completed his/her part of the process.  With triggered send interactions, the marketer has the ability to pause, modify, and restart their automated email sends – all within the ExactTarget user interface.   Here’s the beauty of the solution that developers will appreciate: while the email is paused and being modified, the API calls are queued up so no email sends are lost. When the definition is started again, the queued API calls are processed and sent using the new email creative, and any incoming API calls also send the updated email. 

In other words, this entire modification / redesign process can be completed without any development resources. This allows marketers to focus on email design and not have to worry about coordinating time with a developer in the process.  As you can imagine, this solution makes marketers and developers extremely happy!

Jessica Koch
Integration Consultant

The marketing communications team at ExactTarget has twenty-seven emails scheduled for the month of March. 

No, that is not a typo.  And no…it doesn’t include every email our company sends to clients.  The number 27 represents the sends we know about in advance that my team is responsible for sending to our customers and prospects.

What does this have to do with email marketing design?  Nothing.  And that’s exactly the point.  With so many emails on the calendar, sometimes it’s hard to take a step back and focus on email design optimization.  Like many of you, our resources are tight.  Some days (and honestly, some week and months) our efforts are dedicated to getting our messages out the door while trying to juggle a multivariate testing plan, dynamic content, extensive segmentation, rendering tests, etc.  Phew.

So where does design optimization fit in?  The answer is that it fits wherever you make it.  The more you’re trying to juggle as an email marketer, the more you have to work to make design a priority…especially if you don’t have an eye for design yourself.  Trying to tackle design optimization can seem daunting – so my recommendation for busy marketers is to break it down into smaller pieces.  Remember that effective email design doesn’t magically happen with the snap of a finger (even our designers could attest to that!)  So start with a plan of where to take your email design, and then break it into digestible pieces you can integrate into your workload on a regular basis.

For example, one month you can ensure your call-to-action is in the upper left quadrant of your marketing messages.  The next, focus on redesigning your headers with your design team to ensure they accurately represent your brand and achieve optimal rendering for your subscriber base.  Then dedicate time to conducting tests for your images, colors, or copy to maximize your click-through rate. Focusing on one element at a time can be an easy way to ensure you’re making ongoing improvements – and that you’re giving design the attention it deserves as an integral part of your overall email marketing program.

If you’re looking for someplace to get started, our new email marketing design whitepaper provides excellent recommendations for both marketers and designers alike…no matter how many emails you have on your calendar.*

*Now here’s the kicker…we already have 28 scheduled for April.



Cheers,

Ashley Sales
Manager, Marketing Communications

The number of people using a preview pane to view their email has grown in recent years.  So considering what your readers see in that preview pane has become an increasingly important aspect of planning an email campaign.

The challenge of not knowing whether readers are using a vertical or horizontal preview pane makes the information placed in the upper left region (which will be visible in either layout) of an email vitally important. Combining the viewable area of horizontal and vertical preview panes at common sizes, we find there is a square of overlap that will be visible to most preview pane users.  That’s good news.

As a quick rule of thumb, a square of approximately 4-5 inches (288-360 pixels) is a safe size to plan for this commonly viewable area. This space should be used to quickly establish the brand and primary call to action alongside standard email strategies, such as accounting for image blocking by using HTML text and ALT tags.

Optimizing for the preview pane in this way helps ensure readers will see the most important parts of your message immediately and will engage further by opening your email.

What’s the best way to integrate multi-media and video into my email program?

While support for various HTML and CSS features varies widely across email clients, their stance on video and Flash media in email remains surprisingly unanimous – and that answer is “not supported.”

Only one email client, Mail (Mac), will even display this kind of media at all. Every other client will either strip out the video as if it was never there, or treat it as a blocked image that can never be displayed.

It is possible to introduce a small amount of motion or animation to email with animated .gifs, but even these images aren’t fully supported by some major clients, such as Outlook 2007 (which will only display the first frame of the animation).

With this information in mind, the best way to integrate multi-media content into your email program is not to embed the media in an email, but rather to link to a web-based version that’s hosted outside the email.


Chris Studabaker
Email Campaign Manager

Network World just published a great interview with Yahoo's Mark Rischer, anti-abuse product manager for Yahoo Mail.

Highlights:

• More than 40% of inbound mail to Yahoo is authenticated with DomainKeys.

• Yahoo blocks un-authenticated messages that claim to be from eBay or Paypal. They have no plans (as of yet?) to do this in a broader fashion for other domains.

• Will Yahoo be sending un-authenticated messages through more filtering than if they were authenticated? Yes.

You can read the full interview here. It's quite insightful. What I get out of it is that email authentication is the future, and the future is now.

Need help with email authentication? ExactTarget can help! Our Sender Authentication Package covers all the common authentication methods, including DomainKeys and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). Contact your account services representative for more information.

Building a better list and the quality of your email address are inevitably intertwined.  A recent change at Comcast / Roadrunner may be affecting your deliverability bounce rates. 

Adelphia was a national cable broadband provider that went out of business way back in 2005. Comcast and Time Warner (Roadrunner) bought the assets and split them up between them.

Since then, Comcast and Roadrunner have been slowly transitioning users off of the adelphia.net domain, region by region.

Comcast/Roadrunner are not notifying ISPs or senders when these changes take place. They do notify end recipients whose email addresses are changing with about a month's notice, and encourage them to notify people that their email address is changing.

Comcast is now fully transitioned off of Adelphia, and the Adelphia.net domain will no longer forward mail for Comcast users. That means that you're going to see a higher than average number of bounces at adelphia.net for the few mailings, until these addresses move to undeliverable automatically and scrubbed from future mailings. The ExactTarget system will handle these bounces properly and automatically.

Road Runner, the current owner of the Adelphia.net domain, continues to support email for a large number of users in the Adelphia.net email domain. They have not announced plans to retire the Adelphia.net domain at this time.

Note that for the many email addresses that were just "retired," it's not possible to translate them into comcast.net email addresses, as their username (and therefore the left part of their email address) has likely changed.

When starting a new email marketing strategic planning engagement, we often rely on a combination of tools to help assess a client's value proposition.

What is working now: For established senders, we start by looking at historical results. What has worked in the past and what has not? What types of links draw the most traffic? Etc.

What is working for others in the space: This is where competitive intelligence tools come into play. Email Analyst allows us to look at the email messages that competitors are sending and it provides insight on the traffic that those emails may be driving through an overlay of traffic data from Alexa. This provides incredible insight into what appears to be working for competitors. Thus, it provides good insight into messaging components that the client may want to consider.

Identify and validate key messaging components: Combining the learnings from the prior two steps, we come up with the key messaging components that appear to be on target for the client's audience. We then develop a survey around those key messaging components to validate which components subscribers want most.

Set the value proposition: The last step in the process is to codify the value proposition. Using all of the data gathered through these three steps, the key learnings are distilled into a single, straight forward value proposition that is used to guide future messaging and list growth initiatives.

There are several advantages to this approach... but the most compelling advantage is that it aligns your program with the expectations of your subscribers.  In a marketing channel where the subscriber rules... this is a huge step toward ongoing success.

If you didn't see it already, ExactTarget and Email Data Source announced a partnership in November.  Check out the press release.

Since then, I have been getting questions about how to use competitive intelligence to improve your email program.  Here are just a few of the ways we use competitive intelligence.

1. In strategic planning, use competitive intelligence to monitor what appears to be working for your competitors.  Email Analyst allows us to look at the email messages that competitors are sending and it provides insight on the traffic that those emails may be driving through an overlay of site traffic data from Alexa. This provides incredible insight into what appears to be working for competitors. Thus, it provides good insight into messaging components that the client may want to consider.
2. Look for positive trends in subject lines. Wondering if terms like "Free shipping" are overused? Are they really taboo? Competitive intelligence can help you assess different terms and phrases you are considering using in your subject lines. With Email Analyst's view into site traffic data, you can also get a feel for whether or not these "taboo" phrases really are taboo! (Hint: they probably aren't if your sender reputation is good)
3. Track the frequency and cadence of competitors email programs. 
4. Evaluate the in-house vs. 3rd party email mix of your competitors. Many companies drive traffic to their site through links in 3rd party emails. A competitive intelligence tool allows you to see which emails are driving traffic to your competitors sites... and it allows you to look at the links (content links, text ads, banner ads, etc) that are driving the traffic. Moreover, it allows you to figure out who your competitors are partnering with early on, and allows you to develop a counter-strategy.
5. Track where your brand is showing up. This is especially important when working with affiliates. Bill McClosky, founder of EDS, told me about meeting a prospect who asserted that their affiliates were not, absolutely not, sending email on their behalf. A quick search in Email Analyst proved that wrong... something like 30 emails had been sent in the prior month that drove traffic to the prospects website... all affiliates.
6. Identify new partners. By searching for key phrases and terms that are used in emails, you can identify like minded companies that are leveraging similar phrases and, thus, may be targeting similar audiences. Sure, some of these will be direct competitors... but some may be future partners!

The difference between doing email appends right and doing them wrong involves changing one significant step… the outbound message.  Instead of the outbound message containing a link to opt-out, the outbound email marketing message should have registration as the primary call to action. This approach to email appends is called "opt-in" email append.

ExactTarget was one of the early proponents of this approach and we have now real life experience with this approach under our belts.  Opt-in email appends have been very successful in delivering highly responsive subscribers without the headaches and pitfalls associated with opt-out appends.  However, the challenge is in getting a significant number of people to convert on these outbound email invitations.

Success in converting opt-in email appends involves defining your value proposition. It involves having a compelling reason for subscribers to register--selling your program to the prospective subscriber. All of which is based in the bedrock of marketing success... a good strategy combined with strong campaign execution.

Once you have your strategy for enticing prospective registrants, follow the steps outlined in my previous post about opt-in email campaigns.

The thing that clients like about this approach is that they only pay for emails that are likely to perform. It can take a while to get past the reality that this is not going to add a million email addresses to your list, but that shouldn’t be the point. There are only two business models that can drive revenue from an unresponsive email address—list brokers and email append vendors. By working with these providers on opt-in programs, you eliminate waste and ensure that you will get email addresses of real, live people that are likely to respond.

Yes, this puts a premium on the associated costs and makes pricing more complicated.  Don't expect to pay $0.50 per email address acquired through an opt-in append.  Things like the loyalty of people on your house file, the strength of the call to action, the size of the input file, and anticipated conversion rates may be considered in determining costs. But at the end of the day, this is in the best interest of the client as it avoids the issues typically associated with opt-out email appends and the overall quality is much, much higher.

The Silver Bullet?

Companies looking at email appends are typically looking for a fast and efficient way to grow their lists.  Don’t buy into the promises of a quick and easy solution to grow your list. To be completely cliché “If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.”

Done right, email appends can be effective—but they still take time, careful planning, good execution, and financial resources.  It is not the silver bullet that most people imagine when they latch on to email append as the solution to their list growth woes.

• Done wrong, as is the case with opt-out email appends, we have found that these initiatives are more time and cost intensive as other list growth tactics.
• Done right, in the case of opt-in email appends, we have found these initiatives to be at least as time and cost intensive as any other list growth tactics.

Given this reality, 9 out of 10 times, I prefer to invest the same time and resources into other proven list growth methods.  A couple consistent winners are:

1. Make sure that there are compelling opportunities to register for email throughout your website. This is basic, basic stuff… START HERE.
2. Integrate search campaigns with email registration. Search campaigns should be integrated with email registration efforts. Capturing email addresses on landing pages is the first step. Aligning the call to action on your landing pages with specific search campaigns is the second step. For example, visitors from brand keywords should get a different call to action than visitors from direct in-category keywords or competitive keywords.
3. Integrate with offline efforts. Provide an incentive as part of your existing direct mail or print advertising efforts to register with your company online.
4. Partner co-registration. Find like minded companies that you can cross promote. You include a signup space on their page and vice versa.
5. Tradeshows are huge for B2B marketers. This is no secret, but there is often a significant effort involved in collecting all those business cards and then getting those contacts to opt-in to your program. Do the due diligence and get these systems in place.

If you’re like me, maybe your resolution this year was to not have a resolution.  I swore off resolutions a few years ago – the year after I resolved to run a marathon (accomplished!) but realized in doing so that my resolutions were in fact things that should be an integral part of my life:  Keep active.  Keep learning.  Maintain a work / life balance.  Together, those things comprise the big picture “life foundation.” And I’ve found that if I focus on living it, all the little things fall into place – sometimes effortlessly, and sometimes with a lot of work.

Email marketing is no different.  Last year, when I started working with our email program, I set out resolutions like “get a 15% click-through rate” and “implement a testing schedule” and “lower our unsubscribe rate.”  Sound familiar?  While we were able to achieve them, we were missing the big picture.  The why we needed to accomplish those goals is just as important as the goals themselves.  Our own email program “big picture” is:

• Customer Retention
• Lead Conversion
• Brand Awareness

From here, it’s easy to identify the areas we can improve on (and relate them back to our broader vision).  For 2008, our goals are:

• Analytics and Metrics
• Building Better Lists
• Automation

These may seem basic – but that’s exactly the point.  By boiling it down into the key areas to improve, we can prioritize where to put our efforts.  The critical part is knowing what we’re working for, and then establishing actionable milestones that will be steps in the right direction.

You might notice something missing from the goals above.  Specifics.  Yep, I know they’re gone, too.  But things like “run reports on email performance” and “implement web analytics tracking” and “add 20% more subscribers to our list” aren’t goals – they’re actions.  They should be recorded and executed on appropriately…but to me, they set the bar too low.  If we know one of our goals is building a better list, for example, then adding more subscribers becomes just one piece of a bigger puzzle. 

So this year, you’ll notice a renewed focus on the foundations of email marketing – planning, design, deliverability, list quality, etc.  To help you strengthen each area of your own program, we’re adding a new section to your InSight Newsletter called “Back to Basics.”  Each month, we’ll focus on one area for you to improve – and deliver a brand new type of resource to help you take action. 

It’s no coincidence that next month’s focus is “Building a Better List,” so stay tuned!  In the meantime, I’d encourage you to register for a new webinar offered by our extremely talented Account Management team, and to sound off on what your 2008 email marketing “big picture” is.

Cheers,
Ashley Sales
Manager, Marketing Communications

It was the 1990s, and a young Angel Morales had just created an integrated email strategy for one of the nation’s largest direct-to-consumer enterprise solutions (Sigma).  I was so proud of it: my solution included integrated merchandising, automated remarketing, graphical transactional emails, etc.  It was an outstanding set of features…but little did I realize that it wasn’t a “solution.”  That was a lesson I learned the hard way during my first pitch…
 
Terrifying doesn’t begin to describe sitting across from a hardened CMO with two decades of direct marketing experience, who at the conclusion of my “super cool flash presentation” said “Yeah, all that technology is great but tell me how…”

• I can drive my highest value catalog customers to the website instead of the call center
• I can extend the lifecycle of my customers by 10%
• I can bolster my average order value and engineer my high value customer into brand champions
• I can recognize my at risk customers and retain them
• I can extend the value of my loyalty program into email
• I can leverage data appends to prospect new segment within my existing house file

THAT was the day I realized the value of email wasn’t in the technology, but in applying the technology to traditional DM principles.  While working at Sigma over the next seven years, I learned from the best… companies like Sears, Eastbay, specialty merchants like Zip Products, Chaparral Racing, Nancy’s Notions, Woodcraft Supply Corporation, and countless other merchants.  These companies – whose direct business was far more substantial than anything “online” – made me adjust my thinking and my approach to email.  And it was, quite frankly, a humbling experience. 
 
So fair readers, before we dive into ExactTarget’s new transactional eMail, mobile messaging, and other valuable (and cool) technology, let’s take a step back to basics and MAKE SURE we are using our rich customer data (such as RFML) to its fullest extent. We all have this data, but whether or not we use it is another matter…

• Are you deploying dynamic content/promos to reduce costs of retention?  Remember that not every customer needs / deserves our best offers!
• Are you using segments to target and send to disengaged customers?
• Are you using previous purchase activity to align successful historic promotions to new promotional emails (I respond better to free shipping than 5% off)
• Are you using dynamic subject lines in conjunction with dynamic content to align the message to the micro-masses?

Not only is this the foundation of direct marketing, it’s also the foundation for next-generation web analytics strategies. In other words, we all have to build from the basics.
 
Remember, yesterday’s challenges are today’s excuses – and that’s largely all they are.  With ExactTarget’s Fall 2007 Release, we made it easier than ever to integrate.  WE host the data store, WE manage the import process, WE can automate data updates…all you need to do it to throw a file out onto an FTP directory (something a good “geek” can accomplish in a few hours!)
 
Executing on direct marketing basics will result in sizable program impact.  Interested?  LET’S TALK!  Send me an email and I can quantify program impact using the metrics you already have in house.  So let’s see how “going back to basics” bolsters your bottom line.

Thanks to the Writers’ Guild strike, my TV remote has been wandering into uncharted cable territory of late.  I can’t say that it has made for great viewing, but it did reintroduce me to the 1997 sci-fi/horror film “Event Horizon” and the seemingly unassailable notion that black holes are bad and to be avoided at all costs.
 
A black hole, as you might recall from Physics class or Jeopardy reruns, is an area in space with a gravitational pull so strong that nothing can escape once inside—not even light. 
 
The marketing equivalent that continues to be used by too many reputable marketers is the black hole email subscriber center — a place where subscribers get in, but they can’t get out (i.e., unsubscribe) without a great deal of frustration. 
 
The best practice, of course, is to make it just as easy for visitors to subscribe as it is to unsubscribe.  Too often, though, the unsubscribe process is given short shrift.  Think about your own email subscription center.  When’s the last time that you audited it—actually going through step-by-step to subscribe, unsubscribe, and change your preferences in all of the various ways it permits?  My guess is that it’s been a while…if ever.
 
If that’s the case, I encourage you to dig into your email subscriber center with fresh eyes: enlist new or non-marketing resources if you have to, and walk-through every page, instruction, and process documenting those opportunities to:

• Clarify on-screen instructions
• Verify that all subscription-related links (via website or email) work as intended and land on the desired page
• Simplify the effort needed to subscribe, unsubscribe or change personal information
• Give subscribers the ability to offer & edit more personal data
• Capture other means of contact that may be used in the future (secondary email address, home phone, cell phone for SMS)
• Optimize both subscription and unsubscribe confirmation email content
• Make everything faster & easier

With fresh eyes and a little bit of effort, you can not only rid your email subscription center of any black holes that are damaging subscriber relations, you can also build trust with your subscribers—trust that will be imperative if you plan to expand into SMS and other forms of one-to-one messaging in the future.

When integrating email marketing with other applications, the first step towards success is to make a plan.  I advise clients to use the old journalism “5 Ws and an H” as your guide: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.

Who is going to code / program the integration?  Usually, this resource is an internal developer; but due to time and budget constraints, sometimes this work is contracted out to make a deadline.  Regardless, the “who” decision needs to be made first so the proper developer can be included in the planning process and provide developer-specific details or suggestions if needed.
 
What are your needs for the integration? Is it to automatically send emails based on an action, or is it to pull back tracking from your email application to your database of record or CRM system?  With an open API like ExactTarget’s, there are so many options of how and what to integrate.  Getting a clear sense of everything you want to accomplish from the beginning will help your organization determine whether all of the initiatives should be put into one integration project, broken up into smaller projects in order to keep a timeline, etc.
 
When does the integration need to be deployed?  It is essential to have (and communicate!) a release date so everyone working on the project knows what the schedule is.  Keep in mind that for successful integration, you should build in time to develop and time to test, and make sure to take both into consideration when developing your schedule.  Also, it is good idea to find out what other projects people have on their plate.  While you may want to have an integration running by the end of the month, the developers and / or testers may not be able to keep to that timeline due to other deadlines.

Where will the integration be hosted?  Integrations are typically hosted on a server your company owns, but it needs to be decided if the proper resources (hard drive space) have been allocated to run the project.
 
Why are you integrating? This is similar to the what are your needs, but it goes a little beyond that.  Think big picture: once the integration is setup, how will you utilize it in your business process?  I’ve had experiences where companies want to integrate email with other applications, but do not understand why the integration is important to their business.  What are the ultimate goals you are hoping to accomplish?  Establishing the “why” will help you secure internal buy-in on the investment and measure whether or not the integration is successful in the future.

And don’t forget the “H”…
 
How will the integration be implemented?  In addition to the decision of who will actually implement the integration, you should also determine what the contingencies and risk factors for implementation are as well.  For example, what are you going to do if something doesn’t go as planned?  Identifying and planning for the unexpected factors from the beginning will help ensure your integration gets up and running smoothly.
 
Quite essentially, solid planning is key before starting any integration project.  So remember your 5 Ws + 1 H, and contact ExactTarget for more information.

Jessica Koch, Integration Consultant

I just received an email from Sam's Club. For some reason I started receiving these emails a couple weeks ago. I never signed up with them--no permission. I have, however, registered to receive email from Wal-Mart. I assume that Wal-Mart shared my email address with Sam's Club, even though Wal-Mart's privacy policy does not state that they will do this, nor does the email newsletter preference center allow me to manage my Sam's Club email preferences. 

Initially, I let it slide.  I even got interested in doing some last minute online shopping today and clicked through on a link in today's email from Sam's Club. I did my shopping and at checkout I was faced with the following, oh so friendly (yet somewhat expected) message: "You must be a logged in member to purchase." Well, you guessed it, this means becoming a member of Sam's Club, membership fees and all.



What I don't get is why? Of course, I understand how Sam's Club works, but I am a Costco member. I don't want to pay another membership fee to Sam's Club. My why refers to WHY engage in such horrible practices?

• Sam's Club started emailing me without my permission
• WalMart shared my data in (seeming) violation of their own privacy practices
• I am not a Sam's Club member, it seems like they should have checked into that first
• Sam's Club won't let me buy online without becoming a member of their club
• Why put both brands at such risk??

There is a lesson here for the rest of us. The allure of a "bigger list" is always looming. Companies often see taking on their sister companies' lists as one way of growing their list. This is what Sam's Club apparently did, they simply took the WalMart list and called it their own without ever asking me if this was what I wanted. If this is something you are considering, know that lack of planning around three areas is likely to get you in trouble:

1. Do the people you are bringing into your program from a sister company WANT to be in the program? Simple solution... run an opt-in campaign. Tell the people you are inviting how you got their name, what you plan to offer them, and ask for positive opt-in.
2. Does the audience you are inviting even make sense? Sam's is sending me emails and I can't even buy from them until I become a member. In other sceanrios I have seen, the target demographics of the two sister companies are completely different... why send email to people who aren't likely to (or worse... can't) buy your products. It is a ROI loser!
3. Don't violate your own privacy policies. CAN-SPAM is one thing, violating your own stated policies is, at minumum, a PR nightmare waiting to happen. At worst, it is a legal nightmare. 

As for Sam's Club and WalMart. You need to update your privacy policy... especially if you want my trust as you so emphatically claim in your privacy policy:

We realize that making purchases at Walmart.com, or any other web site, requires trust on your part. We value your trust very highly, and pledge to you, our customer, that we will work to protect the security and privacy of any personal information you provide to us and that your personal information will only be used as set forth in this Policy. This includes your name, address, phone number, email address, and credit card or checking account information, in addition to any other personal information that can be linked to you, personally.

 

EmailStatCenter.com recently released findings from a survey they conducted in September and October of this year on the State of Email Metrics. The survey consisted of 345 respondents, with 55% coming from client side marketers and the remaining 45% coming from agencies and ESPs.

The study provides some decent insight into the challenges that marketers are facing today.  List development, time constraints (which can also be interpreted as resource constraints), and strategy/planning are all areas highlighted both as challenges and as areas for near term focus. 

All of these are critical areas.  We continue to test new list development strategies and will be providing some updates on this topic soon.  Time and resource constraints... building out metrics and making the business case for getting email the attention it requires is a critical first step. Beyond that, recruiting experienced talent in this area is tough.  Strategy and planning is near to my own heart, so I'm glad to see this on the list.  It also makes sense given the considerable growth of our Strategic Services practice in the past two years which focuses the vast majority of its attention on strategy and planning.

Interestingly, another area many indicated as an important near term focus was “metrics and measurement”.  Not that this is interesting in itself, but it puzzles me a bit to see this as the second highest near term focus area (behind list development) and then to see testing ranked lowest in near-term focus.  There are three explanations I have thought of for this:

1) Marketers do not want to start testing until they have better metrics and measurement in place.  If that is the case, I applaud that effort.  The stronger the metrics and the more closely aligned to bottom line business goals those metrics are, the better a program can be optimized through testing.

2) Testing simply is not that appealing.  Given the focus on strategy, planning, and metrics, this does not make sense.  Even with the best plans in place, those plans need to be verified (see my recent post of Marketers Intuition). Moreover, metrics are only good for two things: a) convincing management that we are doing a good job and, b) improving the program—which requires testing new concepts.

3) Past testing has not resulted in the promised results.  Let me be the first to admit that this does happen.  Marketers run tests all the time that do not result in huge gains.  I have run many AB subject line tests during my email marketing career that left little to be desired.  I have also run tests that have blown the doors off a business.  Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 tests to get the knockout, case-study worthy test results.  Not every idea is a good one, but we can't get the huge improvements unless we are willing to fail now and then.  That is precisely why we test!