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How many email lists are you on?

March 27, 2007

I recently spoke to a college class about email marketing. (yes, I used the chalkboard just for fun). These were people who were either interested in eMarketing, or trying to improve their skill set.

I asked the class a question: "How many email lists do you subscribe to?"

I was frankly surprised by the lack of hands.

I am on more email lists than any person should be on. Why? Because I want to see what people are doing with their creative. I want to feel the experience that subscribers of my clients feel. I want to be frustrated. I want to be dazzled. I want ideas. I want to see what my competitors are up to. I want to be blown away.

How can you excel at this is you don't live it.

Your task this week - sign up for 1 email list a day. I know all of you are on the web all day long, start with your favorite products or entertainment. Create an email account just for newsletters if you have to. Take notice of the opt-in process. See how many times you are emailed in the first month. Notice what time you get the email. Try to figure what they want you to do.

You will be surprised at how much this helps.

Comments (0) | Posted by alex at 9:55 PM | Permalink

J. Crew are lazy Email Marketers

March 25, 2007

Dear J.Crew,

I've got to be honest....you're lazy. I like some of your products, so I signed up for your email list. Little did I know how little you actually care about me.

You email me 8-9 times a month (in 2007 so far). You told me I would be "The First to Know" about promotions, special collections, deals, etc....

Apparently, my interests don't really drive these emails.

You have sent me "Sales", which only have 1-2 products in my size. This recent offer really got me excited. Ballet shoes for girls 2-10? Seriously?

When I went to try to tell you more about my self, you knew that you were emailing me too much, so you asked if I would like to be emailed "less frequently".

You should have put the option of "Send me stuff I might actually buy."

They say Email Marketing is a science. Getting preferences and segmenting your list is pretty basic science - kind of like gravity.

I know you need to make money, everybody does. But if you put just the tiniest bit of effort into it, it might actually make your subscribers happy - and make a little bit of money too.

Comments (0) | Posted by alex at 9:52 PM | Permalink

Yahoo! Go. not ready for prime-time

March 19, 2007

At CES, you couldn't help but run into the big blitz for Yahoo! Go, which promised "All your email, news, photos, and more on your phone, always up-to-date and ready for you."

After demoing the first edition on my Blackberry 8703e, and then downloading the upgrade, I have deleted it. Here's why:

1. It is slower than a '62 VW bus driving up a hill. The "revolutionary" carousel design is clunky and not very user friendly. You have to switch to the panel, then scroll through the panel, then click on the story, then open the story, etc.....An RSS reader like www,freerangeinc.com offers is SO much better and easier to use.

2. The email piece is light years behind GMail mobile. Many HTML emails simply had no content at all. No text version, nothing. On the last upgrade I did, Email magically disappeared.

3. I thought the Local Search feature had promise. This was shot down when it for some reason couldn't remember my Zip Code?

The Flickr function showed promise, but it wasn't enough. I could go on and on, but save yourself the time and pass on this mobile app. It literally just plain wasted my time, not what a Mobile app is supposed to do.

Comments (0) | Posted by alex at 7:55 PM | Permalink

$.02 - No Campaigns during March Madness

March 15, 2007

Unless your email campaign is related to college basketball or March Madness, I would advise holding off until Monday through Wednesday when there are no games. ESPECIALLY B2B.

I don't know about your office, but today I don't think many people in our office were signing up for product demos, downloading white-papers, registering for webinars, filling out surveys, etc.....

My best advice to you, our loyal audience, is don't stick to a strict date schedule on frequency.

"Peter, you see, the newsletter goes out every month on the 13th, mmmckay? Great."

If the whole country is pre-occupied with an event like March Madness, hold off a few days.

99% of your list will not say, "Weird, my monthly newsletter didn't come today. It always comes on the 13th of each month?"

Pop culture rules America, remember that.

Comments (0) | Posted by alex at 10:44 PM | Permalink

Bracketology Can Grow Your List

March 12, 2007

College Basketball is in the air and that means it is bracket time. We are working with our InFocus to bring the 2nd annual InFocus Hoops contest. This year winners take home PlayStation 3, Bose systems, and lots of other goodies. This site shows you the power of encompassing a campaign around a large social event.

Check it out and see how we use the Send to a Friend or Invite a Friend feature to drive more competition and a larger base of participants

Comments (0) | Posted by Jeff at 7:39 PM | Permalink

What is Viral

March 12, 2007

I was having a discussion with our director of new technologies, creative director, and one of our Flash developers talking about what is viral. Now many campaigns have touted themselves as Viral and any project that Crispin Porter touches is labeled viral. Nearly every agency that has ever come up with an advergame or Flash-based referral campaign is "viral." At various Ad Club meetings and networking events I have overheard conversations between agencies and big prospects explaining how well they "do viral" and then having to explain for 5 minutes the major viral campaign they ran and how it worked.

If you ever have to explain in any type of detail what your viral campaign is, IT IS NOT VIRAL.

A viral campaign needs to be described in one sentence or less or even better is for you to just say the name of the campaign and everyone within earshot knows what you are talking about. Now this does not mean you have to explain all of the inter-workings, but the concept must be clear and readily understood.

I truly think that for a campaign to be considered viral, it must jump into everyday discussion or pop culture.

I believe that agencies are setting themselves up for failure if they tout how well they do "true viral" and companies need to understand that viral means letting go and don't be afraid.

A number of companies have approached us for viral campaigns but they want to lock down the flexibility the user has or they want "Monk-e-Mail" but don’t understand the type of budget or timeline needed to build a campaign of that size. Buzz marketing and viral are two totally separate things and need to be defined as such.

Agencies - Any campaign that has had referrals is not necessarily viral.
Companies - Read this.

Comments (1) | Posted by Jeff at 6:48 PM | Permalink

Every Non-Profit needs a Macgyver

March 8, 2007

I sat on a panel today speaking to a group of non-profits on "How to create impactful e-Publications". As much advice as I gave, I learned a lot.

Every Non-profit needs a email marketing Macgyver.

As the joke goes, Macgyver could make an ESP out of a pencil eraser, a toothpick, an ice-cream sandwich...(fill in the rest). Non-profits need someone who has the expertise in this area and can get the job done on a shoe-string budget and minimal resources.

I always tell non-profits about the power of email, the relative inexpensive cost compared to printed newsletters, and the ability to drive quick donation opportunities through the emotional impact of their messaging.

What I realized is that the task is daunting for some and can seem impossible.

My advice is to use the free resources at your disposal, find an ESP that can work with your budget, and embrace the channel. It will pay off.

Comments (1) | Posted by alex at 6:31 PM | Permalink

BellSouth doesn't get it.

March 6, 2007

We recieved this alert form MarketingSherpa concering BellSouth. After verifying the issue through our ReturnPath account, we switched every BellSouth address on our internal list to text and delivered just fine.

Alert: Use Text-Only if You're Emailing BellSouth Names

This story was part of the EmailSherpa newsletter from MarketingSherpa

This is a must-read if you are emailing to BellSouth addresses. Just this week, we at MarketingSherpa learned that around 400 of our newsletter subscribers who use BellSouth haven't been receiving our emails.

Evidently, the ISP modified its filtering system in January -- because, after suspecting something was fishy with our recent open rates, we ran a series of tests with our ESP, ExactTarget, and discovered that text-only messages were the ONLY types getting through. In fact, not even emails being converted from HTML to text with a multipart MIME detecting system will land in a BellSouth inbox.

So, you need to immediately do what we did: get on the phone with your ESP to segment your BellSouth customers and start sending them text-only.

What else does this small-but-useful story tell us? First, you cannot rely solely on your deliverability reports -- because they really only tell you about hard bounces. Click this hotlink for charts chock full of deliverability info: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/images/bg-b2b-delivery.gif

Plus, marketers should regularly check their open rates for unusual clusters of un-opens from the same ISP. Don't look at only your Yahoos, AOLs and Gmails, but also addresses going through regional providers, such as BellSouth, Cablevision, Adelphia, Comcast, etc. It's worth noting that ExactTarget informed us that we weren't their only client who has been slowed by the BellSouth bug.

"You need to conduct inbox audits at least monthly to determine if there are hidden issues below the surface, especially with ISPs that make up a smaller percentage of your subscriber lists," says Chip House, VP, Email Optimization Services, ExactTarget.

Marketers who have geographically segmented files should know that BellSouth provides Internet service in the following states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

And while BellSouth was recently acquired by AT&T, no indication has been made whether one of their email systems will umbrella customers for both brands. However, with AT&T's reach in critical markets such as San Francisco/Oakland, it's worth keeping a close eye on -- just in case the BellSouth filter all of the sudden becomes the company standard.

Comments (0) | Posted by alex at 11:08 AM | Permalink