AOL's new Postmaster Blog reveals that the new version of the AOL webmail interface now blocks links by default.

Now, when sending to AOL.com/AIM.com users, your message will have a banner across the top that says “Enable Links (for this message) | (always for this sender),” somewhat similar to what Outlook does. Recipients can choose to enable links for that one message you've sent, or they can permanently enable links for messages you send them by clicking on the “always for this sender” link.

On another note: If you happen to poke around the AOL Postmaster Blog, you'll find this post talking about how AOL wants you to minimize your attempts to deliver mail to invalid recipients. One of the “are you a spammer?” measures that ISPs use against you, is what percentage of your attempted mail is undeliverable. If your list is chock full of bounces, it's a sign of bad list practices. You look like you've bought a list, been sitting on a list for many years, or otherwise came up with a group of email addresses that are far out of date and invalid. Good senders don't have this problem; they mail regularly, only to people who really signed up to receive mail from them. Good senders also process bounces properly; invalidating, and ceasing sending to, addresses that bounce back and aren't deliverable.

AOL doesn't lay out an exact “bounce threshold” -- they basically say “don't be on the bad end of the sending spectrum.” It highlights that AOL isn't willing to provide a bar to allow all senders to slide “just under” as needed; they're concerned about questionable senders gaming the system. Instead, they're working based on a process wherein they identify the spectrum of senders and their associated statistics. They then stack rank senders, and take those on the lower end of the ranking (the poorest senders) and those are the ones they're likely to take action against.

Working this way suggests to me that their hope is to significantly raise the quality of mail their users receive over time.

I've heard the occasional bit of grumbling here and there from various senders and other ESPs about how it's not fair and AOL should simply publish an exact threshold and make it clear what the rule is. I don't blame AOL for addressing it the way they are. I know that ISPs are deluged with mail from “edge case” senders trying to do just enough to get by under the radar and get their mail delivered, without a true commitment to permission. I certainly can't blame an ISP for changing things up in a way that hopes (I think) to trip up iffy senders.

Besides, if you're not an iffy sender, what do you have to worry about?

Q: I want to trigger a welcome email for people who opt-in on my website, and I also want to email that subscriber X number of days afterwards. What’s the easiest way to do it?

A: Triggering a welcome message and then a follow-up message is a great way to use triggered emails, and it’s easy to do with ExactTarget.

With ExactTarget Triggered Sends and Marketing Programs functionality, it’s very simply to set it up.

The first step is to set up a “triggered send definition” and select the list you want to add your new subscribers to and which email you want to send them.  When the subscriber signs up on your website, simply pass over an API call to that triggered send definition, and the subscriber will be added to the list and the email sent.

Now for the second step – the follow up email.  When passing over the subscriber information, I’d recommend you also pass a date attribute, such as “sign-up date'.”  This date can be used to set up a “relative date” based group.  The group will look for subscribers who fit the particular date range you query from the list, and with ExactTarget the query can be set up as a program that will automatically refresh each day (or week, month, etc. – whatever time you define.)  After you start the program, you can “set it an forget it,” as the group will refresh and send the email automatically.

This process can be repeated with several groups for several dates if needed, which creates an easy way to trigger relevant email sends.  If you’re using any of these features in a unique way (or want to learn more about them), let me know!

Jessica Koch
Integration Consultant

I was as thrilled as anyone when we decided to focus this month’s InSight on Building a Better List.  Why?  Because I want to build a better list just as much as the next guy (or gal, in my case).  After all, since we’re an email marketing company, it’s my job to set our email marketing bar high…and keep pushing it higher.  That of course includes the quality of our subscriber lists.

After an extensive re-engagement campaign in the fall of 2006, our lists “shrunk” in size.  And like most marketers, list fatigue is a common challenge for us as well.  Continually building a better, more engaged subscriber list is an important ongoing focus of our email marketing program.  So here’s the lesson I’ve learned about how to build a better list: if you want to grow your list, do it the right way.  Do it one step at a time.  Just do it.

Here’s an example: On Monday, January 28th we put a banner in our application to promote ExactTarget InSight.  This means that the first thing our customer saw when logged in to their accounts was, essentially, an opt-in button.  With thousands of users logging in every day, it seemed like a nice way to reach out specifically to our clients. 

We normally average around 200 InSight opt-ins a month.  However, we’ve already received over 200 new opt-ins in the fourteen days since the banner launched.  The best part is that these opt-ins are coming from our customers, which provides highly engaged and quality subscribers.  So while it may seem like a small thing to do, when you’re building a better subscriber list the small things add up.

Every day, week, or month that goes by is a missed opportunity to build a better list.  If you’re looking for recommendations on how to get started, check out our new case study featuring Hershey Entertainment & Resorts and learn how they achieved a 33% list growth in just ten months. It provides great tips you can use to get started.  Just do it.

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 were looking for some advice from someone who talks to companies sending email, and ISPs receiving email, all day long every day – today's your lucky day! I'm in the mood to share.

Today's advice is on what NOT to do; what NOT to say when talking to an ISP or other site that receives mail from you or your clients.

Don't say: My emails are CAN-SPAM compliant.

If you do say it: You will be scorned. You'll attract derision. At the very least, you're going to make an ISP or spam filterer roll their eyes at you.

Why? Because everybody sending any form of legitimate (or sometimes even illegitimate) mail is CAN-SPAM compliant. Citing this as a reason that an ISP should accept your emails is a lot like bragging that your email has a subject line.

“So?” The ISP employee will ask themselves. “Do they expect a gold star for doing what everybody else does?” From the ISP perspective, only bad guys (and misinformed good guys) tout their CAN-SPAM compliance.

CAN-SPAM allows you to send spam, if you follow certain rules. Right away, your announcement makes them wonder, are you a spammer? Bad guys tell them all the time, “I don't spam, because my mail is CAN-SPAM compliant.” That's practically a non-sequitur. It just doesn't make any sense. CAN-SPAM makes little reference to permission best practices. It practically allows spam. Telling the world that you shouldn't be considered a spammer because you comply is telling the world, “I am not a spammer because I comply with a law that allows me to send spam!” It's not a great message to send. It does not set you apart, and it doesn't convey the true adherence to opt-in best practices that ISPs require to ensure they'll accept your mail.

CAN-SPAM compliance is such a bare minimum as to be useless for describing your email practices. Your send practices have to be CAN-SPAM compliant, sure. But that's far from enough. It takes a lot more than just CAN-SPAM compliance to get an ISP to accept your mail.

ISPs block millions of CAN-SPAM compliant messages daily. They do not care that your messages are compliant with CAN-SPAM. They care only if your mail is desired by their customers, your recipients. That means opt-in; clear opt-in, with details. That means up front signup disclosure regarding who you are, what you'll be sending, and how often. It means proper management of bounces and unsubscribes. It means keeping your list engaged.

Even worse, when you mention CAN-SPAM to an anti-spam group, they usually stop responding to you, or refuse to remove you from a blacklist, or at the very least, they're going to laugh at you. They've heard it all before. After all, the vast majority of people who proudly announce their CAN-SPAM compliance are ... spammers! Don't sound like a spammer, and don't be a spammer.

People who aren't spammers instead say other, better things: My mail is opt-in. People sign up for my mailings directly here at this website (and include a link). I don't buy or sell lists. I don't bury the opt-in notice in a privacy policy. I clearly tell people what they're signing up for and how often I'm going to send it to them.

That's what you need to say, and that's what you need to do.

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!

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.

There’s still a lot of education to be done on the topic of buying lists, why it’s a bad idea, and why it should be avoided.

Setting aside the emotional and ethical question of whether it’s right or wrong to buy lists, there are some very practical reasons that bought lists will damage your ability to deliver mail successfully. Here are the top three.

1. Purchased lists are filled with bounces and invalid addresses. If you don’t mail a list for a long time, then you mail it, it has a very high bounce percentage. High bounce percentages are one of the measures ISPs use to determine who’s doing something bad and should be blocked. If a lot of your attempted mail bounces, you look like a spammer.

Whoever you’re buying the list from will claim everything is cool and great and assure you it’s all opt-in. That might have been true at one time (but probably wasn’t). Ultimately, though, they’re looking to sell you as much list data as possible. They’re probably not mailing the list themselves, just selling it to a lot of different people. If they’re not mailing, they’re not processing and removing addresses who bounce. You buy the list, you buy it, and boom, you have huge bounces and delivery problems.

2. Don’t forget spam traps. Spam traps are email addresses that feed straight into spam filters. Hit just a few (or often just one) of these, and your mail goes to the spam folder or gets blocked. ISPs take addresses that should never be on their lists (usually common typos and forgeries) and long dead addresses (things that have been bouncing and would not have on your list if you handled bounces properly) and turn them into spam traps.

Even if the person you buy the list from was mailing it first, there could be (and probably still are) spam trap addresses on those lists. The only way to remove them is to re-engage your list. Dump inactive subscribers. Ask everyone on the list to click on a link to re opt-in. See, spam trap addresses accept the mail just fine; they don’t return a bounce. But they don’t open and click. So you don’t know which addresses are spam trap addresses. And whoever you’re buying that list from probably is not re-engaging their list – because it could dump 90% or more of the addresses on that list as being invalid or uninterested. That reduces the amount of data they’re able to sell you, which is likely at odds with the list seller’s financial motivation.

3. And finally, consider recipient dilution. What is recipient dilution? That’s where you and 900 other senders mail the same list. There have been a few cases, with clients we’ve terminated, where I test somebody’s signup process, and find that after about a day, they get a hundred emails from 90 different senders. A hundred emails!

Think of how overwhelming that would be in your inbox. Do you want a hundred emails all at once? Regular users are going to be overwhelmed and report all those messages as spam. Your message is not going to stand out, as everybody that list probably has a very low tolerance for messages they don’t recognize. You’ll be just another one of the big pile of unfriendly spammers pounding the heck out of their email account.

Or, let’s assume a different scenario. Perhaps the list owner is compiling the list over time, and will end up sending it to different people at different times. The recipients on this list are going to keep getting mail they don’t recognize that people they don’t know –forever! The list will be sold and sold and sold and sold, and if you buy it, and send to it, you’re just one of the people making the people on that list miserable.

Can you imagine ending up on one of these lists? Even if you meant to sign up for a list that is going to be sold 500 times – after a short while you are going to start getting very upset. You’re getting more and more mail from people you don’t recognize and you didn’t expect that mail and a lot of it is mail you didn’t want. And it keeps coming and coming and coming. You know what I call that? Spam.

ISP users will report that mail as spam. ISPs will listen to those reports, and you’ll be branded a spammer (and rightly so). You’ve got no hope of making it to the inbox when that happens.

My team and I have great relationships with ISPs. But no ISP will ever knowingly want to help a sender doing things this way. If you want to get to the inbox, or not get booted out of the inbox (often permanently), then you need to avoid these practices at all costs.

There are lots of legitimate ways you can build your list. But buying a list isn’t one of them.

The number one thing a marketer can do to ensure maximum email deliverability is maintain a good reputation. The vast majority of ISPs decide which mail to accept based on the reputation of your sending IP address. If you are sending mail to names outside of permission; if those recipients don’t expect to hear from you; if you’re continually mailing the same, tired old list for years; these and many other factors can drag down the email reputation of your IP address, increasing the chances of your mail going to the bulk folder (or being blocked outright).

What you’ll find new on this front in 2008 is that ISPs are clamping down more than they’ve ever done before. They’re automating their spam filtering and becoming faster on the trigger. They’re now blocking more quickly, and declining to unblock more often. They’re outsourcing more of their mail delivery choices to third parties. For example, comcast is working with Return Path.  And Yahoo now uses the Spamhaus blacklists.

That’s why it’s becoming more important than ever to proactively ensure maximum deliverability through adherence to permission. If you don’t, you could easily find yourself trapped in a deliverability quagmire that you can’t easily resolve – even though it’s a practice that you received no negative feedback about previously!

ExactTarget has excellent technical tools to help you maximize your deliverability. Our automated feedback loop processing, bounce mail management, and mail server fine-tuning all work together to get as much as your mail to the inbox as possible. Our dedicated deliverability services staff stands ready and waiting to reach out to ISPs as needed to help resolve issues. But, even with all of those steps, reputation and permission remain the true, primary governors of email deliverability success.

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.

 

The idea of sending an opt-in (or “re-opt-in”) campaign to subscribers to verify email permission is not new, but the frequency with which we deal with these campaigns is increasing.  Over the course of the past year, I would estimate that I have personally worked with over 20 email marketing clients on these types of campaigns… and ExactTarget as a whole has run many, many more.  Here are a few interesting things we have learned about how to run these:

1) Be clear in the subject line.  Email subject lines like, “Verify your subscription continue receiving [XYZ]” or “Your subscription will end soon” tend to work well.  Often these campaigns are targeting subscribers who have not responded in a while, so breaking the mold with this type of concise and straight-forward subject lines help get people to open the email.

2) Restate your value proposition. This is a simple reminder of what your email program offers.  A concise restatement of what your subscribers can expect reminds them of what you are all about… and what they will miss if they do not confirm their email subscription.

3) Use YES and NO options. This is huge (read this part carefully)!  The misconception is that if you only offer a “Yes, please subscribe me” option that more people will react positively by opting into the program.  We have tested using a single “Yes” option vs. the “Yes and No” options for at least 6 different clients.  In every instance the “Yes and No” option resulted in significantly more opt-ins!  There is something about seeing both options that drives more people to respond.  Maybe these emails seem like less of a gimmick, more genuine, or more serious. Whatever the reason, the reality is that by including that NO option, you will actually get more people to click YES.  (See the Peppermill Example below)

In addition, this approach to email opt-in campaigns provides you with clear answers.  There are three resulting groups: 1) Those that opt-in, 2) those that opt-out, and 3) those that did not respond (even if they opened the email).  This third group of non-responders will be your target for a second request.

4) Try sending a second request.  There are situations where a second request is not appropriate.  For example, if you are trying to clean a list suspected of containing spamtrap addresses.  However, if you have used the YES and NO options cited above, the non-responders are a prime target for a second request for email permission.  We find that these second requests consistently get nearly the same number of opt-ins as the first, so failing to do so could have a material impact on the success of your campaign.  We have worked with organizations that have tried a thrid request using the same logic, but the dropoff at this points has been substantial in our experience--two appears to be the right number.

Peppermill re-opt-in email example

The Peppermill decided to conduct a re-opt-in campaign to these subscribers and tested the following two emails:

Version #1

Version #2


Which version do you think resulted in the most affirmative opt-in responses?  (Keep in mind that the only choice in Version #1 is “Yes”, while Version #2 has “Yes” and “No” displayed with equal prominence.)  Given the context of this example, I hope you picked Version #2.  It was the winner and the results are statistically significant.

So the other day I was over at the Chase Bank Tower for lunch. The building hides a nice little cafeteria-style eatery on the second floor packed with the business crowd. Why? Well, 90% of the traffic bee-lines it for the make-your-own-salad section.

Behind those little sneeze-guards rest over 40 fresh toppings and about 500 tiny bowls you can fill with your own personalized mix. Hand it to the chefs, and they make your salad right before your eyes. It's glorious. But back to the point. I had just wandered in the front door when it caught my eye.

The sign read: Email Your Salad. 

Now maybe this just makes me a dork (does anyone still say that?), but a sign like that catches the eye of an email marketer like me.

Email Your Salad. I read it again, peering closer I read the fine print while I stood in line for my hard-boiled eggs, grapes, and breadsticks. And don't make fun of my lunch. I was in a hurry, ok?

Anyway, the sign promoted a new program that allowed people to email their customized salad ahead of time and have it ready and waiting for pick-up. Talk about convenience. And chances are, the reply emails contained an opt-in for regular communications. Talk about list growth.

I haven't taken advantage of the program yet, but it's a clever idea. A nice mix of advertising and efficiency. Done well, just imagine the opportunities behind such a program. Not only would the restaurant staff know which people love salad. They'd know exactly what toppings they like on their salad. Marketers start drooling over rich data like that. 

Or maybe it's just me?

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

2007 has brought a lot of changes on the email deliverability front.  Most ISPs have moved from a content-focused spam filtering methodology, to a reputation-focused model.  They rely heavily on a sending IP address's reputation when determining whether or not to deliver mail to the inbox.  Now, your sending reputation — and by extension, your adherence to permission — are the main things ISPs use when determining how to disposition the mail you send.

The good news is that authentication technologies such as DomainKeys and Sender ID are finally starting to make a difference — improving delivery and reputation at Yahoo and Hotmail.  Look for more ISPs to start to pay closer attention to email authentication over the next year.  The big ISPs promise that eventually reputation will be portable and domain-based.  Will that actually happen in 2008?  Hard to say, but we're ready and able to support a change like this if and when it happens.

ISP filters, blocking criteria, and sender requirements continue to change as well.  For example, Earthlink now expires dead email addresses after a few months of account closing.  Comcast now has a feedback loop.   And AOL is much more likely to de-whitelist (and block) problem senders than they were a year or two ago.  Look for more changes like this over the next year, and look for us to start incorporating feedback loop, bounce, and reputation data from other ISPs (such as Hotmail) to improve our efforts to maximize your deliverability success.  For more deliverability insight, check out our brand new whitepaper, 2008 Email Marketing Trends.

I hate waking up in the middle of the night. But sometimes you just need to get a glass of water, find a midnight snack, or roll over so your right shoulder regains feeling. But twice in the past week I had to wake up for an entirely unacceptable reason.

Spam text messages.

You know what I’m talking about. You’ve nestled in for a few precious hours of sleep. You’re just about to hit a quality REM cycle…then…BZZZZZZZ. Your cell phone vibrates spastically on the end table two inches from your head. You’ve got a new text message.

Now you’ve got two choices. You can assume it’s a life-or-death message from a friend and check it. Or you can assume it’ll wait until morning and ignore it. If you’re anything like me, you can’t fall asleep until you know for sure. So you roll over, fumble for the phone, and squint groggily at the three-centimeter fluorescent green screen.

-- Mailbox -- Text Messages -- New --

And that’s when you see it. Unbelievable.

Instead of a message from your sister saying she’s just won the lottery and wants to share it with you, you find yourself staring at a spammy plea to change banks, buy a hybrid car, or donate $2,000 to a nature reserve in Zimbabwe. Grrr.

That’s right, friends, the world’s “beloved” spammers have branched into the world of text messaging. How wonderful. Not.

What’s that mean if you've been thinking about adding SMS (or voice messages) to their marketing mix? You definitely should – done well, it’s a fantastic new medium to reach your audience. And luckily most of the best practices you’ve learned from your permission-based email marketing program will also apply to text messaging.

But today’s lesson is more high-level: make sure you have permission to text your audience. Your subscribers are going to be inundated with more and more spam texts in the future (*ahem, two nights this week). It’s more important now to make sure they want to receive your information and are looking for your texts amidst the clutter.

And please don’t send text messages in the middle of the night (unless you’ve got a really good reason). Some of us are trying to sleep!

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

Online retailers face some pretty daunting challenges. After all, potential customers can compare products and prices for dozens of competitors at the click of a mouse without ever getting out of their fuzzy slippers. Sometimes it can feel risky to distract buyers with an email opt-in during the purchase process for fear buyers will get sidetracked and fail to complete the sale.

How about using a coupon to entice your online shoppers to purchase AND sign up for your email communications? Talk about a win-win. In fact, I saw a great example last weekend when my father was shopping for horse riding gear online. Equestrian Collections offers a $5.00 coupon on your first purchase when you sign up for their email list. And if you've ever bought horse supplies, you know every little bit helps...!

Better yet - if you've integrated your web analytics and email marketing programs, snag new subscriber purchase data and use it to drive their email content. For example, how great would it be if my father's first email contained additional products from the brand he just purchased? Talk about relevance.

Equestrian Collections also does a great job requesting additional info on their opt-in page. They even track your horse's birthday so they can send you a $10 gift on the big day. I love it.

So retailers - think about using coupons to encourage purchases AND grow your online opt-in list at the same time. Merry Christmas, indeed!

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

Am I the only one who gets a bit gloomy when it's dark at 4pm? I’m not claiming anything fancy-schmancy like Seasonal Depression (SAD), but it takes a little extra effort to survive a chilling Midwest winter.

I decided to make a “winter happiness" list. It’s comprised of things that could make the season of frostbite and 24-hour nighttime a bit less daunting.

It’s a short list.

So far it includes things like: Keep fresh flowers in the house, and invest in a bright yellow umbrella. Last weekend I checked another item off the list when I went wreath shopping at Jo-Ann Fabrics. And yes, I bought jingle bells too. I shook them merrily as I walked up to the cashier and asked if they made her happy too. She sort of scowled.

Guess what didn't make her "winter happiness" list…yeah, jingle bells.

Regardless, my door now sports a perky twig-cranberry montage and two golden jingle bells. And I have Jo-Ann’s to thank for it.

I decided to scope out their email marketing program. Though they could do a better job advertising their email opt-in (it’s buried in the webpage text footer), I did see a few items I liked:

1. Privacy Policy Link: Easy to find at the top of the sign-up form.

2. In-Store v. Joann.com Emails: Especially nice considering a decent portion of their audience is older and may not shop online.

3. Frequency Caps: They set expectations. This helps cut down on future spam complaints.

4. Preferences: With nine crafty categories to choose from, Jo-Ann Fabrics can both gather rich customer data and drive highly-relevant email content. It’s a win-win.

Wreath and golden jingle bells: $20.00.

Email opt-in: Free.

Winter happiness: Priceless.

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate

Animal lovers are a breed of their own (sorry, best pun I've got at 8am). Last weekend I joined a group of self -proclaimed animal enthusiasts for a National Disaster Animal Response Team (NDART) training workshop hosted by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

What's that, you say? Think Hurricane Katrina, Southern California wildfires, Kansas flooding. NDART teams can be deployed anywhere animals are caught in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster or emergency.

Yes, this is an email marketing blog. Patience, friends.

Non-profits face many of the same questions as for-profit B2B and B2C organizations. Is email worth the investment? Can it show any real ROI? Can it really spread awareness and drive action?

I have to give HSUS props for their email marketing program. Just check out just a few ways email engages website visitors, increases issue awareness, and delivers transactional email communications:

- The Humane University email newsletter (eScoop)
- Pet Tips, Action Alerts, and Seal Watch email online opt-ins(complete with explanations of each type)
- "Email this page" website functionality to raise issue awareness
- Triggered transactional emails for training & event confirmations
- And much more!

And it gets better. Yesterday I visited the NDART site and had the the opportunity to opt-in for SMS messages. Major kudos for leveraging one of the latest one-to-one marketing technologies before most for-profit companies!

I started this post and 8am. Now it's 6pm - and I'm just getting around to finishing it. But that's life at ExactTarget - busy, busy, busy!

Take care,

Nicole
Marketing Communications Associate
ExactTarget

 

If you were fortunate enough to attend DMA '07 in Chicago last week, you could not help but notice the significant increase in the number of sessions (10) devoted specifically to email marketing. And judging by the attendance at these sessions, email is clearly receiving more budget and is fast becoming the “workhorse” of one-to-one marketing.

Traffic in the exhibit hall at McCormick Place was also heavy. More than 79 exhibitors were listed in the show directory as providers of Email Marketing Services, including ExactTarget and agency partner, Aspen Marketing Services.

As a long-time attendee of this annual gathering of direct marketing professionals, I can tell you it is great to see email marketing embraced by the DMA as a legitimate direct marketing channel. The recent union between the DMA and the Email Experience Council is further evidence that email – and specifically permission-based email – has become a vital component in multi-channel marketing strategies for customer engagement, retention and growth.

And the Email Experience Council is already having an impact on the DMA! There is plenty of interest in the upcoming Email Evolution Conference which will be held in San Diego February 12 – 13. If you’re looking to get more juice for the squeeze from your email marketing strategy, you cannot afford to miss this conference.

ReturnPath's new article on "Lead Generation Do's and Don'ts" should be considered a must read. How timely! Just yesterday, I was on a call with a client, trying to help them dig out from a deliverability issue (high spam complaints and blocking), and it turned out that lead generation was the problem.

See, our client got snowed. The lead generation vendor said the list was opt-in, but it wasn't. They paid X-thousand dollars for a list they now can't use, because it's a spam list, and therefore not allowed under our terms of service. They were able to launch a mail to the list before we caught it (yuck), and the stats on their IP address spiked so clearly and significantly as to draw a big red arrow pointing back to this bad practice.

The guidance from Stephanie Miller is very similar to the guidance I gave to our client:

• Vet your vendor carefully. In this case, the vendor sold our client a sack of rotting potatoes with a gold ribbon and a label saying "opt-in list." It clearly was not what the vendor claimed it was.
• Get opt-in permission, not opt-out. This means that if your vendor's telling you they'll send an email to recipients saying "if you don't opt-out, we're going to give your email address to company X," they're doing it wrong. Think about it. People miss that message. Spam filters eat that message. Open detection never works with 100% of recipients. So how does "opt-out" equate with consent? It doesn't.
• Don't assume that just because people didn't think to opt-out, that they want your mail. Yeah, lots of people won't opt-out, but will happily report every mail you send as spam. You might as well be wearing a big sign saying "PLEASE SEND MY MAIL TO THE BULK FOLDER" - because that's what ISPs will start doing.
• If people aren't expecting to receive mail from you, don't mail them. Just because they opted-in to some third-party pool of addresses (maybe) doesn't mean they want or expect mail from you. Lists like this (as we once again confirmed with this client issue) draw much higher spam complaints, and draw deliverability problems.

Finding a reputable vendor can be tricky. It might be more appropriate to reach out to us for specific advice, but generally speaking, you need to make sure that any such vendor is going to do an OPT-IN process across the board. For both their own lists, and for the way they're going to introduce you to their subscribers. That means:

• People have to opt-in to end up on the list rental or lead generation list. A sneaky "because you registered for this free technology publication our privacy policy says we can sell your name" (which is, unfortunately, a common practice) is not opt-in.
• People have to opt-in to end up on your list. That means when the list rental or lead generation site presents you to prospective subscribers, those subscribers have to take an affirmative and positive action to end up on your email list. That means they have to click on a link, or respond to the email, or sign up on a website page specific to your list. "They didn't happen to opt-out" is not a good enough reason for them to end up on your list.

Incidentally, I've referred a number of clients over to ReturnPath, and they do things correctly. They're not paying me to say this (and we don't make any money if you sign up with them), but I have been working for years with companies who've used Return Path's list rental and lead generation services, and have never run into these kind of problems.