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

A couple of conversations today prompted me to take a fresh look at the "mobile email problem", as I have come to think of it.  After reading our whitepaper "Email Marketing for the Third Screen" a client asked, "But I am still not sure exactly what to do!"  Yep, you are not alone.

There are a lot of ideas out there about how to solve the problem.  Some are better than others.  Some are simply poor and short-sided... but I digress.  Fact is, all of the proposed solutions are nothing more than workarounds to a complicated and baffling problem derived from the fact that no common coding standards exist.  Optimize for one scenario and you mess up performance for another.  There is no simple quick fix.

Now that I have rained on everyone's parade, the larger question really is "What is going to FIX the mobile email problem?"  This question was raised in a discussion this afternoon.  The following is an edited response I posted to that group.  Enjoy!

The right answer is for mobile devices to adopt standards for rendering email such that current coding standards work.  This is similar to the standardization efforts that helped unify the internet.  Remember when the internet was littered with images like this?  Thankfully they are gone now.



The initial thought was to muster the email troops and lobby for the adoption of standards that would better serve the consumer.  However, the market forces against getting manufacturers to standardize how they treat email are simply too strong at the moment.  Consider that iPhone recently leapfrogged the entire industry in their ability to render email and now RIM (Blackberry) has Apple pegged as enemy #1.  How well these devices support mobile email is a huge competitive advantage and when you are talking about selling cell phones, you are talking about big, big bucks.  In several attempts to engage with people who could influence the adoption of industry standards I was met with head shaking and laughing, as if to say, "How naive?"

Fortunately, Apple has done more for creating the necessary pressure than any lobby could ever hope to do.  Their move with the iPhone was a huge step toward "rendering email properly". The pressure they have applied to the market to handle email and the online experience well (no matter how much one may agree or disagree about "how well" thus far) is already accelerating changes in the market.  RIM knows they are in a fight as they enter the consumer smartphone market.  They will need to update their enterprise mail server capabilities and get with the times... or get their teeth kicked in.  All Apple needs to do is drop their price to $100 for a smartphone and RIM drops out of the consumer battle.  Since the consumer smartphone market is is where the big money is in the coming years, it is imperative for RIM to upgrade the way they handle email and the web.  I believe that B2B trends will follow quickly... or else RIM will go the way of Lotus Notes to be only used when IT has already invested too much to pull out.

My belief is that this problem will fix itself through market competition in the next 2-3 years, which is faster than a lobby would probably have an impact. We have not seen the long term solution yet, but it is coming--the competition is fierce, and that is a good thing for our cause.  After getting laughed at realizing the economic forces at work, we stopped trying to beat the "thy must standardize" drum.

For now, mobile email remains a big challenge.  Only a select few have figured out solutions that are even halfway decent.  Nothing stellar.  There is the trade-off between desktop appearance and mobile rendering.  Where mobile is highly likely (e.g., travel alerts) then go with simple single column, boring old email.  If simply trying to accommodate for a mobile audience where readership is more likely to happen on a desktop, then then trying to minimize the distortion of email on the mobile device by using tools like Pivotal Veracity eDesign Optimizer for mobile devices and then leverage a click to view solution (where the landing page determines the type of browser and then renders the page accordingly). Unfortunately, that is still the best I have come across. 

ExactTarget is committed to investigating other alternatives.  Moreover, this is a personal passion of mine and there are many others at ExactTarget passionate about finding better workarounds.  We are optimistic that a decent workaround is on the horizon, but not foolishly so--there will not be a perfect workaround until standards emerge.  If you have ideas that you would recommend or like to try, let us know, we would love to work with you.

There, I said it.  And I’ll say it again: triggered email is only as good as your data.  I know, I know…now I have to back that claim up.

If you’re sending triggered emails in response to one-time events (for example, welcome emails, website confirmation downloads, etc.) then chances are your data is pretty good.  Someone does “something” (subscribes, purchases, downloads, etc.) and you trigger an email in response to whatever that something may be.   

These are often the most easy-to-implement triggered messages, which is why so many marketers have started to not only use, but optimize them.  Like many of you, we here at ExactTarget have made leaps and bounds in our triggered emails over the past year, including:

• Defining what the “somethings” that result in a trigger are
• Capture those “somethings” and feeding the data into our CRM database of records
• Triggering an email out of ExactTarget using our triggered email interactions
• Tracking the holistic performance of the triggered emails
• Making adjustments on the fly (without involving our web developer, which makes him very happy) for maximum performance.

Typing the list above makes it seem easy.  Get the data, then trigger an email.  We’d like for all our email messages to be sent using the process above.  But what about the following, more complicated, scenarios? 

• The “something” event is comprised of multiple data points
• The data lives in multiple systems
• Your data isn’t clean

Not so easy.  At least, not for us (and I’m guessing that means not for you, either).  Take, for example, a satisfaction survey we’d like to send 90 days before a customer is due to renew their contract with us, followed by a reminder email if they haven’t yet completed it, or a thank you email if they have.

In theory, this would be an easy series to trigger:  Send #1 = Renewal date – 90 days.  Send #2 = Triggered thank you upon completion OR reminder email 7 days after survey invite sent. But…

• We have multiple (sometimes hundreds) subscribers stored per account in our CRM system.  Not all contacts should receive the message.
• The data about what is due to renew / when it is due to renew is stored in a separate area of our CRM system, with no easy way to tie a subscriber to the renewal opportunity.
• Because we don’t delete data from our CRM system, the subscriber may no longer work at the company.  This information is often manually typed in to a data field (i.e. “Patricia NO LONGER THERE.”)  Look familiar?
• The extensive survey is hosted by a third-part vendor, which means there is no real-time visibility into whether someone has completed the survey within our own system.

The list goes on, but suffice it to say that there is a lot of manual data cleaning that goes into pulling a satisfaction survey list and sending the series.  So while this seems like an ideal campaign to trigger, it’s just not easy.  And I’m guessing that we’re not alone in this challenge.

While I don’t have a solution to the overall data issues that impede implementing more triggered / automated emails, I can tell you this – understanding what data is needed, where it lives, and what obstacles stand in the way of easily getting that is a huge first step in the right direction.  As the old saying goes, not knowing is half the battle.  So if you’re looking to automate or optimize your triggered email marketing and have found yourself in a similar situation, understanding your data is a good place to start.

Cheers,

Ashley Sales
Manager, Marketing Communications

It's not often I bask in the glories of admiration for the US Postal Service, but yesterday was an exception.

As previously mentioned, I'm in the process of moving. And it's kind of a pain, considering the 192 change-of-address notification I need to make in the next two weeks. Last night, I decided to start with the US Postal Service because they offer a simple online form (with a $1 credit card charge).

After inputting the standard info, I had the chance to get special "new mover" discounts from national retails like Lowe's and JC Penney. Surprised, I happily ticked a couple boxes and submitted my form. Their system automatically triggered an email confirmation, so I popped into my Gmail expecting a half-baked, text-heavy, government-esque email.

Oh contraire.

A professional-looking HTML email awaited me instead with the necessary confirmation details. As I browsed the rest of the message, however, I realized they'd prepopulated the special offers I selected for Lowe's and JC Penney. I clicked through on the Lowe's offer and arrived at a nice landing page offering me a "new mover discount of 10% on my next purchase."

And here -- I'm proud to say -- I converted.

Yup, I filled in my info and landed on a Lowe's confirmation page which included an optional survey asking which areas of my home (*cough) I was interested in improving. My guess is, if I'd actually ticked any boxes -- my offer email would have included some specialized info for those rooms. Regardless, they had decided to use confirmation page real estate to learn more about their new subscribers.

By this point, I was pretty impressed with the entire experience.

So I went back to explore the rest of my US Postal Service email. At the bottom, they thought to include links to other places I needed to change my address -- like the IRS, car registration (which was automatically redirected to the appropriate state based on my new address), and voter registration. It was a welcome helping hand for someone trying to make sure she's thought of everything!

Well, enough swooning over the US Postal Service. Let me just finish with two observations: 1) I think about email WAY too much, and 2) It's possible to really impress your subscribers by offering a clean, cohesive, simple email experience.

Kudos, USPS, kudos.

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

I don't know anyone who likes moving. So either I have "half glass empty" friends, or the world has figured out that moving is a royal pain in the...anyway.

Here are some of my favorite things about moving:

1. Running out of packing bubbles and wadding 923 Kleenex together to cushion your box of dishes.
2. Calling utility companies, the BMV, and the U.S. Postal Service with your change of address.
3. Painting your old place back to "eggshell" (best practice: 5 coats).
4. Paying nearly a month's rent to hire movers to cart your Kleenex-Corelle, furniture, and clothes to avoid shamelessly abusing your friends who are unlucky enough to drive pick-up trucks.
5. Scouring apartment guides online, scheduling walk-throughs, and juggling 15 "in the works" living options.

You guessed it -- I'm moving. And I'm super excited!!! Not.

At least I wasn't until I found some apartments doing their part to make my life easier. How? They let me set preferences through their websites (# bedrooms, move-in date, price...) and sign up for SMS or email alerts.

Here's one pitch:

"No need to constantly check back to see if an apartment you want has become available. Be notified automatically by email and/or cell phone text alerts when there are new matches based on your apartment criteria."

Now instead of trying to juggle everything on my own, the most relevant information can be delivered to my figurative doorstep through the channel I prefer. Love it.

And the result? I'm signed, sealed, and delivered in under two months.

Welcome Home.

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

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

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

The CRM 4.0 Launch Tour event in Atlanta was a packed house.  Approximately 200 people filled the seats to see and hear the latest on CRM and Microsoft.

The programming was similar to the Tampa event, but with new client studies.  The client study was hosted by Paul Kalella from Customer Effective and their client, Jamestown Properties, represented by Chuck Niswonger.  Changing the way data is collected and stored across Jamestown Properties was a phenomenal undertaking for Chuck.  The installation and leveraging of MSCRM allows for a stronger and different type of acquisition pipeline at Jamestown Properties.   The new way of leveraging data and the new process have brought tears to people’s eyes (literally) at Jamestown Properties.

Based on the large percentage of attendees with marketing roles, the demonstration and overview portion of the day went deeper into Marketing and Support tools in MSCRM.   The showcasing of the workflow ability inside of CRM definitely drew a positive response.

Well, Exact Target and I are off to MS Convergence (booth #206) to discuss how leveraging MSCRM workflows and ExactTarget email makes it a very powerful combination. 

Hope to see you at Convergence!!  More to come……

Craig Herman
Director, Global Partner Development – Microsoft

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 my inbox is any indication, list growth was a common goal set for this year.  In the past week, I have been asked for information on email appends and other list growth tactics by several clients a day.

Most email append providers offer what we call an "opt-out" email append service.  The process looks something like this:

1) Client provides a file containing street addresses of customers or prospects that is matched against a database. Where a match to the client's list is found, the email address is appended to the record.

2) An email is then sent to the individuals on the newly created list with the option to opt out. (Interestingly, many email append companies advertise the low number of opt-outs that are received... but more on that in a minute)

3) After allowing some time for people to opt-out (typically a week), two files are returned to the customer. The first file is a list of successfully appended and delivered emails. The second is a list of opt-out emails to be used for suppression.

Cost

We have worked with several third parties on email append projects with clients. Pricing is competitive in this industry with rates from reputable email append providers starting around $0.50 per appended email address with significant discounts based on volume. Pay attention, since there are hundreds of companies that advertise significantly lower rates. If someone quotes you rates starting at $0.05, or even $0.10, per email append... RUN!

Issues with Opt-out Append

1) Those low opt-out rates are not a good thing.

One prominent player in the email append space advertises, "Less than one-fourth of one percent choose to opt out." No one should be impressed by this since opt-out rates are always low.  The industry wide average opt-out rate is about one-tenth of one percent. So, quoting one-fourth of one percent suggests that their average opt-out rate is 2.5 times higher than the industry averages.  Not good!

2) Quantity, not quality.

The opt-out approach to email appends provides no incentives for the email append provider to ensure that the names will be responsive. They get paid by the address they provide back to you, regardless of whether or not the address is responsive. While reputable providers do have an interest in repeat business and referrals, which is some incentive, the fact still remains that you pay for the email addresses you receive back at the end of this process. The only requirements are that the email address is deliverable and they did not opt-out to a single email sent to them as part of the process.  These are embarassingly low thresholds. In my experience, addresses acquired through opt-out append are less responsive than new registrants from other sources. At least part of this can be attributed to “recipient dilution”, which you can read more about in Al’s recent post. At the end of the day, you just end up paying for a lot of deadweight.

3) "Opt-out" is not permission.

Why is this important? Because lists that are not permission-based result in higher unsubscribe rates, higher percentage of people clicking this "This is SPAM" button, and lower open, click-through, and conversion rates. These factors lead to problems with your online reputation, and thus, your ability to get your email delivered. Just because someone does not unsubscribe or report you as SPAM the first time you send an email to them (as part of the opt-out append process) is no indication that they will not do so later. The best predictor of someone reporting you as SPAM is the level of permission you obtained when they were added to your list. "Opt-out" lists, while legal under CAN-SPAM, do not meet the demands of most ISPs receiving your email, significantly increase the likelihood that your email will be blocked, and make it much more difficult to get your email unblocked.

"But all the email addresses are 'double opt-in'!" is a common protest when we bring up this point. Well, yes... maybe at some time they double opted-in for something. But, they never opted-in to anything for you! Permission in marketing is non-transferable.

For that reason, ExactTarget is a permission-based ESP. All ExactTarget clients sign an agreement agreeing that the lists they provide are permission-based and are not permitted to send to opt-out lists using our system.

4) Opt-out append leaves a negative impression with some recipients. 

I have yet to find a way to measure the financial impact of the negative impression that is left in the minds of unwilling recipients of appended emails, but there is no question that there is a dark side. Forrester provides excellent insights based on a survey they conducted in August 2004. "Nearly 50% of likely email subscribers wouldn't mind and would read appended emails from a cataloger. However, appended email blatantly offends between 25% to 39% of consumers, depending on the type of business sending it. And it has hidden risks. About 20% of consumers say that even though they read appended emails, they find them annoying. Another 12% say that although they don't unsubscribe, appended emails annoy them."

5) Results are spotty at best.

MarketingShepra's 2007 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide indicates that of marketers who have tried email appends, more than half said it either didn't work or it wasn't worth the effort.

Part II coming soon... email appends done right!

With four young children, a couple of working parents, two dogs, a guinea pig, a fish named John, and a hamster who’s been MIA for about a month, my life sometimes spirals out of control. Breakfast dishes are left on the counter for more than twelve hours, dirty socks are rescued and reused from the depths of the laundry abyss, and small pets sometimes go unfed (but only occasionally—usually the kids alert me when they find Bob, the guinea pig, crawling listlessly toward a water mirage in his basement cage).

The most recent faux pas, however, involved my soon-to-be 9-year-old son and his upcoming birthday. The problem? I forgot his birthday was upcoming. Let’s just say that was definitely not my proudest parenting moment.

Rewind to approximately three years ago when I first discovered the joys of online shopping. With an eight, six, four, and two-year-old in my house, eToys quickly rose to the top of my Favorite Sites list. At some point during one of my shopping experiences, I completed an online questionnaire about my kids’ birthdates, genders, and general interests to help guide and narrow my toy purchases.

Who knew I could be so proactive?

Fast-forward back to 2008. While cleaning out my daily email this week, I noticed a message in my inbox that read, “Son #2 (they actually used his real name) is about to turn 9!” With a sharp intake of breath, I checked my online calendar to make sure I still had time to redeem myself--or better yet, pretend I’d been on top of the birthday thing all along. One week to go. Whew!

So, I clicked on the recommended toys for boys ages 9-12, was directed to the eToys website, and thus met with over 300 items any young boy would be thrilled to own.  With a remote control dragonfly, a distance-measuring football, several books about komodo dragons, and a Nintendo DS game on the way, I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief.

Occasionally, we all need a little nudge to stay on track. I'll be forever loyal to eToys for taking the information I gave them three years ago and feeding it back to me at a time when I was very desperate and very likely to make a purchase. It was a win-win for eToys and for the Willis family.

Thanks for having my back, eToys.

Happy Birthday, Son #2!

Warmest Regards,
Katrina Willis
Copywriter

Hats off to ExactTarget agency partner, Customer Portfolios for the terrific work they are doing to help Dunkin’ Donuts roll out its new Dunkin’ Perks™ customer loyalty program.

As reported by Amy Johannes in the January 23rd online


As reported by Amy Johannes in the January 23rd online edition of PROMO P&I, Dunkin’ Donuts will use permission-based email to keep customers enthused, engaged, and most importantly . . .  coming back to its stores and its website to take advantage of special offers.

In the article, Joahannes notes that customers who opt-in for the Dunkin’ Perks program will receive e-mails twice a month with product news, store locations and special in-store and online offers. Members get offers throughout the year specific to their local market.

David Tryder, Dunkin’ Donuts manager of interactive and relationship marketing said, “We want to continue building relationships with our customers by sending them targeted communications and offers.”

Localized Promotion

One of the things I like about this program is that many of the promotions Dunkin’ Donuts sends will be specific to the Dunkin’ Perks™ member’s geographic location. I think franchise owners will love this! As I am reminded when I click on the “Perks FAQs” menu item (See My Perks Profile page below), “It's the easiest way for Dunkin' Lovers to keep up to date with everything happening at Dunkin'.”

 

And just in case a consumer needs help finding a Dunkin’ Donuts store where they can get their DD fix, a handy store locator makes it easy for me to find one.

The Dunkin’ Perks™ program was piloted in Albany, NY last year and went very well according to Nick Godfrey of Customer Portfolios.

As to how the one-to-one marketing program works, Godfrey said, “As customers use their Perks card, all transaction data is captured so we know what they are spending per visit, how often they are visiting their Dunkin’ Donuts store, and at what time of day they are visiting. This enables us to target customers with relevant, just out of reach offers. When customers change their behavior, they are rewarded. Everyone is happy. To that end, we consistently see over a 50% open rate for Perks’ emails!”

Godfrey added, “To ensure customers become accustomed to receiving and recognizing their regularly scheduled Perks email, all emails carry the same subject line: Dunkin' Perks Alert.”

The Agency Behind the Dunkin’ Perks™ Program

Customer Portfolios is the agency behind successful database marketing programs for many brands including Johnston & Murphy, Hat World/Lids, Unicef, World Travel Holdings, and Baskin-Robbins.  The firm’s “Lights-Out Marketing” solution enables organizations to execute highly targeted and triggered email marketing programs that are based on such specifics as the customer's segment, life cycle stage, and purchasing behavior.

Greetings – happy belated new year! Over the last couple months, my blogging activity has hit an all-time low. With good reason – on December 14, 2007, we filed our S1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of our common stock. The following press release was issued:

http://email.exacttarget.com/ETWeb/pressReleases.aspx?id=2616

Although I can’t comment further on our proposed initial public offering because of the SEC’s quiet period rules, I hope to be more active with my blog in 2008.  I expect the upcoming year to be very exciting for online marketers looking to leverage email and emerging one-to-one technologies to deliver relationships and drive business results.

Thanks for reading and here’s to a successful new year!

The only thing I love more than puppies is marketing channel synergy.

Call me crazy, but I just love when companies use their websites, emails, advertising, PR, blogs and other marketing channels to deliver a coherent message. But, it's easier said than done. The guy who runs your website probably isn’t the same guy that handles your email program. And neither one designs your print ads or writes your corporate blog.

It’s hard to keep everyone on the same page, but it’s worth it. Talk to each other. Share messaging calendars. Coordinate product and website promotions. Your customers will notice if you show a little synergy. Take, for example, a recent email I got from the ASPCA. The message included a pitch for their online kids community – Animaland. (I know I’m not a kid anymore. But there were cartoon puppies involved, and they had me at hello.) The site offers fun information on top animal issues, newsworthy young advocates, and quick tips for our “four-legged, finned and feathered friends.” I clicked-through, and the first thing that caught my eye was the opening Flash piece. ADOR-able.

Animaland is also featured in multiple places on the ASPCA homepage – like under the program tab and in a cute call-out in the right-hand column. There are also several relevant press releases in the media archives from the Animaland launch in 2001 and its Gold Award announcement from the Parents’ Choice Foundation in 2004. Talk about synergy – website, PR, email, and more!

How convinced would you be if you got an email saying “HEY this is important!” but couldn’t find anything about the same topic when you looked at the company’s website? In press releases? Or corporate blogs? You might begin to question whether a) the message really IS important, and b) whether the company’s marketing team ever talks to each other. Send a consistent message across marketing channels, and you’ll look like rock-stars next to promotionally disjointed competitors.

But wait a minute, you say. Why would the ASPCA promote an online tool they launched six years ago – it’s old news! Shouldn’t email real estate be reserved for the latest and greatest? Not necessarily. While email is great for pitching a new feature, website, or offer, remember that many subscribers have entered your list since “Campaign X” launched. I opted-in for ASPCA emails in 2007 and had never heard of Animaland. Until the email popped into my inbox. As long as it makes sense with your email’s message, don’t be afraid to remind subscribers about all the great things you already offer. It might be new to them!

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

Ps – OK, truthfully, I love puppies more than marketing. But only by a smidgen.

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.

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

The hoopla has started to calm down, but the impact of the iPhone is becoming crystal clear now. The battle between Apple and RIM is shaping up. B2B marketers hoping that business users are only using Blackberries need to take note. Optimizing your email for mobile rendering on the Blackberry is not going to be the long term answer.

Furthermore, other smartphone manufacturers continue to release phones that seem to be a direct response to the iPhone. Samsung's F700 and the LG Voyager are just a couple of the more notable recent releases.

It seems that iPhone’s full support of HTML on the web and email has fundamentally changed the definition of “mobile internet.”  Where users had grown accustomed to having limited functionality on their mobile devices, the iPhone responds with a clear message, “you don’t need to settle.” iPhone delivered a user-friendly experience that makes huge strides (however imperfect) toward providing a web and email experience that mimics a traditional computer.

Whether or not Apple caught the other manufacturers off-guard or not is a moot point now.  Fact is, that many of the leading mobile manufactures, such as Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson had joined the dotMobi bandwagon prior to the iPhone release. The folks at Apple recognized error of the dotMobi approach, which essentially creates two distinct online worlds--simultaneously creating both a fractured marketing experience and administrative nightmares associated with running parallel sites. Instead, Apple developers facilitated access of the traditional web and email on a mobile device... and by doing so, set a new standard.

In bypassing the dotMobi movement, Apple has done a service to all online and email marketers by creating demand for mobile devices that have full internet functionality, and by showing that it is possible. Email marketing professionals should praise this accomplishment. I believe it is a critical first step toward a solution to the current challenges associated with mobile email rendering.

I am seeing more and more examples of how smart marketers are using email for customer service. And with today’s generation of APIs (Application Program Interfaces), it’s easier than ever to integrate email technology with database technology to deliver fully automated customer service messages – that are personal and timely – and require no human intervention.

Why more companies do not use email to deliver subscription renewal, billing reminders and other “alerts” is beyond me. It’s just good customer service. And for those companies that do, it is becoming a huge competitive advantage. I don’t have the metrics to support my opinion, but I believe we are getting closer to seeing just how important email is in building relationship equity which in turn builds brand equity.

Here’s a good example.

Last week, I received an email from my 23 year old son, Chris, who is typical of today’s “digital media” consumer who prefers the speed and ease of email. His recent experience with an insurance company serves as a good example of what can go wrong when email is not used to alert customers when their policy is about to expire. Here’s his story:

“I came into the office this morning and realized that my car insurance expired on December 23rd. No email was sent to me from (my auto insurance company) alerting me to the fact that my policy was due to expire and inviting me to renew. This caused me to think about how great it would have been to receive an email with anything in the subject line alerting me to my policy's impending expiration.

This leads to two conclusions about email, one fairly obvious.

1. Subject lines are more important in 2008 than ever. We are inundated with email, and subject lines are being skimmed more and more. There's no longer the necessity to entice the recipient with subject lines, you now must communicate the gist of the message in the subject line.

2. This leads me to my second and slightly less obvious point. No longer is it a perk for us to receive emails alerting us to special offers or information that is timely (like policy expiration alerts)…we now expect it. I have paperless billing for everything. I now expect that when I need to be alerted about something -- of interest or importance -- that I will be informed of via email. In fact, I have come to expect this.

Those of us who work in the field of online marketing understand that today, it’s all about ROI. Is there a better way to generate positive ROI than by retaining an existing customer? For two cents - or whatever the going rate is for email - (my auto insurance company) could have made $960 (I can't wait until I'm 25 for cheap insurance!). I'm not a math wiz, but spending two cents to generate a $960 insurance renewal seems like a pretty good ROI!”

Slightly off topic here, but I feel like I am on a hidden camera show right now.  Trying to log into my Sprint account, I have been informed that Sprint has upgraded their security policy.  To verify my identity, they ask me to answer questions about relevant items such as:

1. The make and model of my car.  Okay, so how does Sprint know that? And how is it relevant really to my cell phone usage?
2. The address I live on when I purchased my car.  Even a bit more freaky... again, how does Sprint know that?  Moreover, this appears to be evidence that cell rates are too high.  If they have money to build databases that store that information, then they definitely have too much money.
3. Select from a list of properties "Which of the following properties have you PREVIOUSLY OR CURRENTLY owned?"  Maybe I understand this one, I have been a customer of Sprint for a while, tracking historical addresses makes some sense... I guess?
4. What month and year I purchased the aforementioned home? I have no idea... that was three houses ago!! I just went back and checked my tax records from 2000 and for some reason I can't find the month I purchased the home.  It was summer, I think.  I remember it was a really hot day when I moved.  In fact, I remember vowing never to ever to move again that day. Oh my, I broke that vow, how can I be so dishonest with myself? Okay, you got me there... I don't know when I bought that house and I am getting depressed thinking about it. If all else fails, go with option C.
5. Pick from a list of streets I never lived on.  Apparently C was incorrent because they have more questions for me. All of these street names look familiar. One of the streets listed was from an appartment I rented in college in 1993! Some great memories from that apartment. Gee Sprint, thanks for taking me down memory lane. It is clear you know me better than I know myself.
6. The name of the seller of a home I purchased 7 years ago.  Am I really expected to know this? It was just some guy, I dunno his name, I never even met the person.  I dealt through an agent.  You are asking me questions I don't even know the answer to.  From memory lane to flashbacks of my calculus final.
7. The names of people that have lived with me.  You have got to be kidding me. You track my roommates??  Roommates? I hated some of those people. They weren't even Sprint customers. How (and why) are you doing this to me?

I work in the industry where we analyze data to provide relevant marketing materials to customers. Things like email address, gender, occupation, and interests. But, this type of completely over the top use of data is the stuff that gives the privacy mongers ammunition. There is a balance. If data is relevant and helps you identify me as who I claim to be, or helps you provide me with information I want, that is one thing. To chronical my life and track it for the past 15 years is WWWAAAAYYYY too much. If we want Washington to stay out of the online privacy world, companies need to use a bit more common sense. Don't make people feel like they are in an episode of the twilite zone.

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.