ExactTarget Blog

Each Thursday at 11am EDT, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus  partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.

Our guest for a recent #NexusCafe chat was Susan Prater, vice president of integrated marketing at ChannelNet. Susan recently joined ChannelNet and has held many roles in interactive marketing and branding at Ford, Owens Corning, Masco Cabinetry, and her marketing consultancy, Seven Pillars Marketing. Susan is passionate about leveraging ExactTarget to create comprehensive and interactive marketing campaigns to reach audiences effectively. She is currently serving as co-leader for our 3sixty Live Michigan user community, which just started up in December. If you're interested in getting involved in a 3sixty Live user community locally or helping us start one, please go to our program page  learn more information.

Here's a summary of the conversation:

@ETNexus: Q1 What's a marketing idea that you didn't get to in 2011, but would like to try for 2012?
@coreybauer:  I'd like to see a little more automation in our email program - always nice to have timely and effective emails go to customers
@csabbarese: Tapping in to a solid mobile strategy
@havronsm: More focused marketing with list segmentation, just added dynamic content
@kkestler: Hoping to wrap up a lifecycle marketing implementation. Also want to really dig into more data and custom metrics
@coskier: Actually tie conversion analytics to a campaign. Shouldn't be as hard as it seems to be.
@kathleenferrie: In 2011 we started strongly focusing on social media, I'm looking forward to taking that to the next level in 2012

@ETNexus: Q2 How do you plan to integrate social media with emails, bringing the one-to-many back to one-to-one with email?
@coskier: It is still a matter of using the right medium for the job, and what the consumer expects from which medium.
@jcohen808: Most marketers still have a lot of work to do using their own clickstream data to inform 1:1 before diving into social data
@coreybauer: Agree that integration is important - However, shouldn't the emphasis be put on communicating to customer in the medium they prefer

@ETNexus: Q3 How do you plan to up-level your segmentation to get more engagement  to get the best results?
@susanprater: Look at your most popular Facebook posts or best performing emails for new ways to segment based on customer engagement
@coreybauer: However, Preference Channel doesn't mean neglecting other mediums for comm... Analytics of customer channel use will be big in 2012
@jcohen808: From vendor point of view, we want to see more clients use opt-in source to inform segmentation. Start strong out of the gate!

@ETNexus: Q4 Mobile gets bigger and bigger. How do you design with mobile in mind (size of buttons, clickable links, balance of white space)?
@susanprater: Take a look at your email template and give it the “fat finger” test. Is everything easily clickable by your finger?
@susanprater: Mobile links should go to a mobile landing page (maybe to sign-up) or to a video for more info
@bethleleck: Lots of attention on mobile, but still used by many as a single channel. Integrate Social + Mobile + Email in 2012
@coreybauer: Additional padding around "CTA's" is important - don't use FIXED WIDTH columns

@ETNexus: Q5 Do you include your personality in your communications? What are some ways to do that?
@susanprater: Incl. content by your subscribers or speak with a fun “voice”. Chocoley.com does a great job with their email voice.
@coreybauer: At times I feel the Subject Line of email is the only area companies will use "personality" with customers
@csabbarese: Absolutely...people I engage with connect with me on a personal level so that's how I communicate with them
@coskier: Depends on the nature of the email. Is personality appropriate for the message being conveyed? Does it match brand image?

@ETNexus: Q6 Since every audience is different, how do you intent to up-level your testing? What are easy places to start?
@susanprater: Start with A/B testing of subject lines, use of personalization, CTA button colors, kinds of images hieven length of email.
@jcohen808: It's key to test opt-in source performance. Requires good reporting and mktrs not to dump all new signups into 1 list.

@ETNexus: Q7 Creating an editorial calendar for cross-channel communication can be challenging to pin down. What are some advantages to doing it?
@susanprater: Helps to ensure that you’re not hitting the same subscribers with too many emails, etc. at the same time.
@susanprater: Great way to break down various marketing silos with an editorial calendar. Helps bring awareness internally to what others are doing.
@coskier: Sure hoping the #ethub calendar will help with this type of thing.
@csabbarese: Calendar: to see what's scheduled, due dates, resources assigned...a must have in my book
@havronsm: See your plan in the past, see how/where it worked and adjust for the future . Know where you've been and where you're going.

@ETNexus: Q8 What are your favorite marketing resources to improve your communications throughout the year? 
@susanprater: Of course my favorites are #NexusCafe and @ExactTarget! I also follow thought leaders on Twitter.
@csabbarese: Ummm #nexuscafe...tons of great shares and input. Awesome resource!
@parastudio: QR Codes: Some nice examples -Tesco, Heinz, Starbucks, JC Pennys, Phillips & Company, Victoria's Secret
@kkestler: @mashable & @HarvardBiz often have good data that can be used to improve communications.