This just in: 18-24 year olds think of email as a “formal” medium of communication. This is ironic, maybe even laughable or disturbing to some. I remember when email was first coming into broader adoption in the mid-90’s I read editorials discussing the demise of manners due to the loss of the personal, handwritten letter.

College students just think differently than us older (ahem, established career) folks. We recently hosted a panel of students from Ball State’s Center for Media Design (CMD) who hit this point home. For them, social media and SMS round out the top forms of personal messaging, and email is the realm of the formal, the land of the adults, parents, professors, and even grandmas. One student on the panel even said: “An email is like getting a letter. It’s just above a Facebook wall post of “sweet things.” Awesome.

This perception of greater importance, gravity, and formality of email could actually serve marketers well. For businesses that know how to respect the rights of their subscribers, and send relevant, permission-based and personalized content there is simply no evidence to support the pundits predicting the demise of the email. Email is still incredibly viable for all age audiences for messaging and permission-based marketing.

The 18-24 demographic is very savvy with technology, however. Growing up with email, they are masters of “making it work” for themselves so it fits with their lives and preferences. At our panel discussion the students commonly reported having multiple email addresses – each address with a distinct purpose. For example, one student said, “I have my college email address for emails from my administration and professors, then a Gmail account for the signing up for ‘stuff I want,’ to get about products, etc…and I have a Yahoo address for spam, which I use when I’m on a gamer site and I just want to play, not get their crap. It’s kind of a throwaway address.”

Everyone likes a handwritten letter. Why? I think there are two main reasons. First, letters are a symbol of caring due to the time investment required to create one. Second, the personal nature of seeing a friend or relative’s handwriting is simply compelling, flattering, and human. Letters are formal and show that the sender “cared” enough to take the time to write, etc. Direct Marketers figured this out in the 80’s and companies like Intelligent Ink sprouted up to add a new type of personal, human touch to direct mail. They employed an army of minimum wage workers with good penmanship to personalize envelopes. Though this technique may seem trite today, when these first hit mailboxes a few decades back the concept was new and differentiated, and the response increase was through the roof!

Think how you can improve your program by adding personalization and a bit of care to your next campaign. Start by thinking of your subscribers as individuals and you’re on the right track.

The future for email, however, is much brighter than it is for direct mail. Even in this down economy, a new study from eConsultancy says that 59% of companies plan to increase their spend on email marketing in the coming 12 months. Now if I could only get a fancy wax seal on my email...

Our 2008 Channel Preference Survey showed how college students are experiencing a tipping point of sorts with their personal communications. In fact, 34% of 18-24 year-olds said they use email and 34% said they use text messaging (SMS) when asked the medium they use “most often” to send written messages with their friends. However, just 19% prefer instant messaging (IM) and 9% prefer sending messages via a social networking site.

Will the entrance of today’s college students into the workforce change the way businesses communicate in the future? Will Facebook be the way young employees communicate with one another in 2011?

I think that most of the difference in personal communication preferences can be attributed to life-stage (unique needs, communication types, acceptable norms) than a generational difference that will be carried with to the adult stage. Using the “When in Rome, do as they do in Rome” concept, I think the platform, or forum for the communication is what primarily drives the messaging media selected. So, as today’s college students enter the workforce they will most likely be forced (or strongly coerced) to adapt to the email culture of their employers.

New platforms like social networks will prove difficult for marketers to penetrate, because most will approach it a bit too brazenly. Our survey data showed that 18-24 year olds report being nearly immune to the ploys of marketers. However, a new survey from Synovate shows some aren’t being entirely truthful. Or perhaps, is it just that when they interact with brands it is in a much more social manner? For example, 62% of 18-24 year-olds in the Synovate survey reported passing along comedy clips. Perhaps the best way for marketers to have their brand talked about is to encourage this kind of friend-to-friend pass-along. Maybe our ads just need to be funnier?!

Stay tuned for blog updates with additional takeaways from a recent panel we conducted as we hosted a number of faculty and students from the Ball State Center for Media Design. We’ve got lots of nuggets to share and insights for marketers on how to pick the right medium for the job.

Q:  Are there email design considerations I should make in the midst of a tough economy?

A: Since email design is the artful visualization of a business plan, marketers need to first ensure their communications strategy is solid. The focus should be on the subscriber and the financial challenges he or she is facing. Economy-induced challenges create strong emotional subscriber responses that need to be acknowledged and addressed in marketing communications.

Here are some tips:

1. Show appreciation. Customers should feel appreciated for their loyalty, so include a thank you note or email. Send holiday well wishes and request their feedback on how to better serve them in the new year. This shouldn’t be a check box survey that asks for their satisfaction level on a five point scale, but a sincere open-ended question that allows them to express their needs, concerns, and suggestions. Demonstrate that it is about them, not about you.
2. Be Patient. Your subscriber is a person facing financial challenges, not number 5,241 on your data list. Be careful to avoid damaging your one-to-one relationship by increasing the quantity – and promotional force – of your messages. Subscribers’ disposable income may be stretched, so be sensitive to your level of purchasing insistence. Remember to provide extra relevance during these times to keep brand engagement high – even if purchases wane.
3. Be empathetic. Acknowledge tough times by offering valuable product-related solutions. Think creatively about emotional solutions that may encourage a purchase when budgetary restrictions are loosened. Share stories, solutions or resourceful ideas from other subscribers who are feeling the same economic pain. Consider creating an online community for subscribers to connect with each other. Listen.

All of these tips should be encompassed within the core communications message and resultant design focus. They should not be used as a gratuitous intro sentence preceding a 700 pixel deep promo visual. The message placement and dedicated design real estate demonstrate your sincerity.

Appreciation, patience, and respectful persistence will help nurture strong customer relationships during stressed financial times. The economy will rebound – be sure your loyal subscribers are still with you when it happens.


Melinda Baxter, Director of Marketing Services

Yesterday, an article I wrote on the Best Time of Day to sent email was featured in MediaPost's Email Insider column. The post highlights an interesting new perspective that our friends at The Center for Media Design have provided on when, and how, consumers read email.

The key take away of this article is similar to the key take-aways of the whitepaper we collaborated on, namely, that the details of our consumers lives matter. As we develop an email marketing strategy, we need to keep in mind what is going on in our consumers lives. This applies not only to targeted email campaigns by way of delivering relevant content, but to delivering the right types of messages at the right time of day. Wondering if morning or afternoon is the right time to deliver your messages? Well, based on the insights from CMD, it may depend on the type of message. Newsletters likely make sense early in the morning (especially for B2B marketers) when people first login to their email client and have some uninterupted time to read your message. Direct response messages may work better in the afternoon or evening when subscribers are in "quick hit" mode.
 
To give you a taste for the depth of insight of their work, you can download two free reports from their site. High School Media Too provides a look into a day in the life of 15 teenagers, while Middletown Media Studies 1 is the first wave of this research that they have made available since it is getting a little old. Payment is required for the more recent and more extensive studies, but at worth the investment. BTW, if you can't tell, I am a big fan of theirs.

Dear Retailers:

We can’t see your images in your emails.

We can’t see your 20%-off merchandise or special offers. We can’t see your holiday sweaters, or dresses, or suits, or toys.

Why? It is because your emails are made entirely out of images, and due to image suppression at the bulk of receiving email clients and ISPs your emails look blank, imageless, and don’t reflect the brand you hope to portray.

Want to increase your holiday sales for 2008? Start by optimizing your emails using the principals of what we call “performance-based design.” How? Head on over to the ExactTarget design blog and learn about their recommendations for email marketing design best practices. Also, check out their latest whitepaper: Email Marketing Design: The New Essentials.

The key to the success of your email program this fall will be about making an impact in the inbox that is relevant to each subscriber’s wants and needs…not about sending more email.

Sincerely,

Your Once Loyal Customer (Please give me a reason to buy from you)

Jason Baer understands the game-changing value of adding digital marketing expertise to an agency’s service offering. Before he founded Convince&Convert, a social media and email consulting firm that helps agencies beef up their digital marketing capabilities, Baer headed the interactive division of Off Madison Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. Recently, I sat down with Jason to get his take on why agencies must get serious about developing digital marketing capabilities.

Joel: Why is it critical for agencies to develop digital marketing capabilities?

Jason: 500% more people in the U.S. have a MySpace account than watch American Idol, which is far and away the #1 TV show. More dollars will be spent on Internet advertising this year than on radio advertising. We're at the point in the development of the Web that digital marketing capabilities are no longer optional, they are required. To be any sort of marketing consultancy today and not having digital expertise is akin to not having the expertise to write a press release or design a logo.

Further, the inherent tracking and testing opportunities that digital provides can dramatically enhance ROI of offline marketing, when those techniques and philosophies are applied universally. For example, using banner ad rotations to test creative messaging that is then rolled out in print, radio, TV etc.

Lastly, in this uncertain (at best) economy, clients will be gravitating even more toward digital because it is definable and measurable and the production costs are minimal in comparison to other tactics.

Joel: What “land mines” agencies should avoid in developing digital expertise?

Jason: I find three primary problems when traditional agencies try to enhance their digital capabilities.

First is the guru syndrome. I've written about this on my blog. Many agencies want to find a Web genius who can handle everything, and that will make the pain go away. Unfortunately, digital marketing is so broad and so nuanced now that one person cannot possibly stay on top of all of it. Also, if you accept the proposition that eventually digital will be baked in to essentially EVERY marketing program, having that digital knowledge siloed creates huge operational challenges for the agency. The guru ends up doing nothing but going to meetings, and does little actual digital marketing.

Second is the notion that digital marketing begins and ends. The reason digital marketing works is that it's a process, not a project. The ability to tweak and improve based on a careful study of analytics and other feedback mechanisms is a concept that is outside the historical world view of many agencies that specialize in "making stuff" like TV commercials, radio ads, outdoor boards, etc. The idea that once it's made, that's just the beginning of the marketing program, not the end is a big change for many agencies.

Lastly is the belief that digital marketing is a young man's game. So many small and medium-sized agencies make the junior staff handle all the digital work because it's familiar to them. That's a huge mistake. The potential for digital to transform a client's business - both positively and negatively - is real (especially in email and social media). Consequently, senior staff not being in the digital trenches creates missed opportunities, both for agencies and the brands they represent.

Check back on Wednesday for Part 2 of my interview with Jason as we talk about what agencies must do to master digital marketing.

I know you’ve heard me tout the value of personalizing email content hundreds of times. Still, I am amazed that many marketers don’t believe personalizing email is worth the effort! So, for those of you who still doubt the value of personalization, here’s more proof.

Writing in the October 28th issue of MediaPost’s Email Insider, Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon of email marketing agency, Smith-Harmon, note that a report put out this past summer by the Aberdeen Group found that top performing, or "Best-in-Class," organizations that collected and used data to personalize email campaigns, experienced an average order value increase of 57%.”

The report “Email Marketing: Get Personal with Your Customers” identifies the effects of email personalization on subscriber engagement. The study represents the views of more than 550 organizations and groups companies based on annual performance increases. Through their survey, Aberdeen found that top performing organizations (referred to as “Best-in-Class”) are twice as likely as “Laggards” to use the information collected within their database to personalize email campaigns.

Thomson CompuMark Believes in Personalization

Dave Wieneke, Interactive Marketing Manager at Thomson CompuMark, has proven the value of email personalization. He sends the monthly Client Times Online newsletter “on behalf” of CompuMark’s 22 account managers to attorneys who specialize in brand and copyright law. Each subscriber’s newsletter carries the photo and contact information of the CompuMark account manager with whom they work, and articles are personalized based on the defined preferences of each subscriber.

Says Wieneke, “The dynamic content tools of ExactTarget make this kind of personalization straight-forward; our marketing team implemented this without any specialized resources.”

Since Thomson CompuMark began personalizing email, the number of clickthroughs has increased by 63% and the amount of time subscribers are spending on content has gone up 41%! This is genuine subscriber engagement!

Using CRM Data to Personalize Email Content

One of the reasons Thomson CompuMark has been successful in personalizing email is because they have integrated their CRM system (Salesforce.com) with their email system (ExactTarget). To learn more about how to use CRM and Web Analytics data to personalize email content, download the ExactTarget white paper, “Integrating Email, CRM and Web Analytics”.

You just can’t make this stuff up. I saw this story on Yahoo a few days back which read: “U.S. doctors have found the Bee Gees 1977 disco anthem "Stayin' Alive" provides an ideal beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim.”

Now, since I’m a drummer in my spare time, using a popular rhythm to use as a comparison to a critical heart rhythm makes sense to me. It speaks my language. Thankfully, because of this article I now know that I can comfortably conduct CPR at the right pace since I seemed to have the tempo of Stayin’ Alive stored somewhere deep in the recesses of my brain.

Those connections to individuals are less easily predicted online. Yet these types of esoteric facts about an individual can make the difference between a non-response and a sale. The problem is most marketers don’t know what questions to ask or which behaviors to monitor.

In fact if a marketer wanted to target me differently based on my being rhythmically-oriented, they would have to guess, ask me, or append psychographic interest data from a database that somehow listed my subscription to Modern Drummer Magazine (which I haven’t had in 20 years).

Combining preference data and behavioral data is the only way to go. Neither are perfect, but combined they are very compelling. Preferences alone may point you in an entirely different direction than a subscriber’s actual behaviors. That is one of the points we made in our recent whitepaper, “Messaging Behaviors, Preferences and Personas.” Our research with the Ball State Center for Media Design showed combined observations on media usage behaviors with survey data on how each type of medium is used.

We found, for example, that teens tend to use social networks extensively and most often when communicating with friends. However, most of this same group said they were much more likely to respond to a promotion when presented to them via direct mail or email (unless it is spam) than via a social network or a text message. They hold these newer media to be more personal to them.

That isn’t to say that social networks should be devoid of marketing or businesses. In fact, a recent survey from Cone showed that adult users of social networks have some expectation that businesses will be there (not sure if it is expectation or “acceptance”).  In this survey 51% said companies should have a presence in social media but only as needed or by request. Our own research points to the same thing: Opt-in is still king and email is not dead….and now I can do CPR!

Following the recent release of our latest research paper, Messaging Behaviors, Preferences, and Personas, done in collaboration with Ball State's Center for Media Design, there have been some requests to see more detailed data by age. Specifically...

@josephjaramillo wrote: 18-34 doesn't make sense as a group. I'd rather see 18-24, 25-34.

For the collaborative study with Center for Media Design, it made sense to use a slightly broader age group in order to merge our insights with their observational data. As you might imagine, following people around all day is a slightly larger undertaking than collecting survey data, so this was necessary in creating personas that include both attitudinal information and data on real-world media exposure.

That said, we do have the attitudinal data people are asking about. Here are two charts showing preferences for where consumers want companies to send them permission-based promotions and unsolicited promotions. This is not the same as driving purchases, which is referenced in the report... we have that data in smaller age chunks also, I just need to compile it. Enjoy!

Data for opt-in promotions:


And here is the data for unsolicited messages (aka, SPAM):

One of the SUBSCRIBERS RULE! tenets is to deliver subscribers timely, relevant content that improves their lives. However, personalized content alone is not enough if your email isn’t designed properly.

One way to achieve the goal of delivering timely, relevant email is to customize your content and design for the individual subscriber.  How?  By using your individual subscriber data to dynamically personalize all aspects of your message – including copy, images, links, and subject lines.  Start by considering your use of color, images, and typography, and how those elements guide your subscriber’s eye though the email.  

For example, do your section headlines stand out, or are they lost in the shuffle?  Are you including key information in an image that may be blocked for the majority of your viewers?  Does your primary call to action appear in the preview pane, or is it lost below the fold?  Are you using both emotional and rational appeals to engage subscribers in your brand and content?

Additionally, the key information in your email should be easy for your subscribers to find.  If you have a newsletter, include a table of contents or “in this issue” section to inform subscribers what they can expect to find within your email.  This is just one way you can make your subscribers’ lives a little easier.

If you’re actively thinking about design elements like this on an individual subscriber basis, you’re off to a good start.  Take the time to deliver content that is designed to take advantage of the email-viewing environment. By viewing your email design through the eyes of your recipient, you can embody the SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy – and  in return, may be rewarded with higher engagement, brand loyalty, and ROI.

Tim Siukola
Senior Email Marketing Designer

We spent a lot of time trying to decide what to call the new community for ExactTarget users.  First we thought of ExactTarget Universe…then Elements…then Spaces.  But we finally landed on ExactTarget 3sixty.  And in my humble opinion, a 3sixty by any other name simply wouldn’t be as sweet.

Why 3sixty?  The term “360” is familiar, it’s well-rounded, and it’s complete.  And that, my friends, is exactly what we hope ExactTarget 3sixty is: your one-stop shop for everything ExactTarget. If you need an answer to a question, a resource, or even a piece of advice, 3sixty should be your first stop.  If you want to learn something new or connect with someone in your area, 3sixty is the place to be.

Some of my favorite spots in 3sixty:

• Ideas: The most widely used area of 3sixty so far!  If you have an idea about what we could do to improve the ExactTarget application, Ideas is the spot for you.  Post ideas and the community votes on favorites to ultimately help drive our product.

• Answers: The name says it all – post a question, get an answer.  The community and ExactTarget employees will help answer your questions.

• Resources: All ExactTarget resources…all in one place.  Did you notice the word all?  From product documentation to whitepapers and use cases, it ALL lives in Resources.

• Groups: Connect with others that are doing what you do.  If you’re a designer, join the Email Best Practices group.  SMS users, join the SMS Fan group.  If you can’t find the group you are looking for, create your own!

I’m hoping that while you’re out there cruising 3sixty, you’ll have suggestions on how we could improve the experience.  So you guessed it: post them in Ideas, and let us know what you think!

Stephanie Zircher
Director of 3sixty

*Please note: ExactTarget 3sixty is only available to direct ExactTarget clients.

Hi, all –

My name is Megan Graham and I am the newest member to join the marketing team at ExactTarget. I came on board just in time for the Connections ’08 User Conference. I can’t think of a better way to get acquainted with the company than this event! I had the chance to attend some educational sessions and connect with many customers from around the globe. On a shuttle ride over to Conseco Fieldhouse for the annual awards dinner, I had the pleasure of chatting with a customer who traveled all the way from Iceland!  It was exciting to witness the enthusiasm so many customers have for ExactTarget.

One of my favorite parts of Connections was the opening keynote presentation. Before the production began, the dimmed lights and loud music foreshadowed the main event. And, it was definitely designed to impress.  It reminded me of the type of cutting edge presentation that Steve Jobs gives when announcing the latest Apple product. With impeccable attention to detail and a stellar presentation—I can see why ExactTarget is labeled the future “Google of the Midwest.” 

I was also amazed at how people could not get enough of the SUBSCRIBERS RULE! foam fingers. These were a popular item that many clients requested extras to take home to their kids or coworkers. SUBSCRIBERS RULE! is ExactTarget’s philosophy that companies should be building relationships with clients, not merely “marketing” to them. The core principles of SUBSCRIBERS RULE! are:

1. Serve the individual - Don’t focus on lists. Use technology for mass personalization.
2. Honor preferences - in terms of content, frequency, channel
3. Deliver value that meets the customer’s unique needs…they don’t care what you want, only what they want. 

This is a transformational philosophy, and I haven’t witnessed another organization that believes more strongly in this issue than ExactTarget.

These past few weeks have been a blast, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store...

Megan Graham
Marketing Communications Associate

Melinda Baxter, Director of Marketing Services

Here’s a common question I receive. “Wow! Movies in email! Company X says it’s easy, and we should partner with them to do it.  They say our clicks and sales will increase madly!”

First, here is some clarity around the technology picture:

Our whitepaper “Email Marketing Design & Rendering: The New Essentials” talks about this directly on page ten: “Embedding Flash or video in email will cause major deliverability issues.  If delivered, these design elements will be stripped or disabled.  If you want to use rich media, use a screenshot of the media linking to the “live” version on your website.  Animated .gifs are also alternatives that work across many – but not all – email clients”

Next, I’ll focus on the impact:

ExactTarget customers (and even ET ourselves) regularly leverage videos to engage subscribers. We don’t do this by embedding the video in the email, but by linking to the video. Our own “InSight” newsletter has used this technique.  Some of our customers have found that linking to video generates the highest clicks in their email – this is an excellent thing to test! The success is generally related to the relevance of the video content to the subscriber, and it’s not always a silver bullet.

We have customers that use videos to link to product demos on their web site, fashion show footage, “how to” instructional videos, CEO messages, etc..  Some have such success with videos as an engagement technique that they tease it in their subject line to increase open rates.  Others have tested it against Q & As, with the Q & A format outperforming the video.

"How Stuff Works" features a video in prime real estate each newsletter (btw - I think this is a very fun newsletter to read!):

Advance Auto Parts also links to "How to" videos each newsletter, along with other interactive links...



Like any other engagement technique to increase subscriber interest and involvement in your email and brand, test it to learn what performs best for your subscribers. 

Got the picture?