Golden Leads

Please don’t follow Kmart’s lead. Here is what I received shortly after opting in:

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Wow. Of course, when I went to manage my preferences, I was given 2 options: unsub from “Kmart” email or unsub from “Promotional” email. I am not even sure what this means? Is Kmart selling my address? Are these different types of lists?

In 1 month I was sent 12 emails asking me to buy everything in the entire store. Tv’s, diamond rings, baby strollers, toasters, etc….Am I really just going to buy $34 grand worth of product in the first 30 days on the list?

Some times I wonder who is driving this channel at some of these companies, and If they even subscribe to email lists. Is this not common sense? Do you like getting an email every other day from a department store?

Please put yourself in the shoes of the subscriber, and try to be smart about your frequency and messaging.

It’s companies like Kmart that give email a bad name.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

Email marketers….you are missing the point if you don’t allow a person to manage preferences!!

I mentioned in a previous post how I was trying to convert some newsletter subscriptions from Gmail to Yahoo. The culprite this time is the newsletter from Wolfgang’s Vault, a music memorabilia company (who is being sued by the Led Zeppelin, the Doors, the Grateful Dead and Carlos Santana for posting live recordings they purchased from the estate of legendary promoter Bill Graham).

I scrolled to the bottom to look for a “Manage Preferences” type of link.

Here is what I was greeted with:

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After clicking on the link I came to this:

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So, what does a subscriber do? Unsubscribe, that’s what they do. You have left them no choice.

Our platform at eROI, emailROI, features a preferences link in each email. If your current ESP doesn’t offer this or a work around, all of that hard work you put in to get this subscriber on your email list was futile.

People change thier email addresses all the time. I know we want to make the unsubscribe option clear, but you have to make it easy for them to update their address from your newsletter. You have to.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

2 questions to ask yourself before doing online surveys:

1. Are you prepared to use the answers from this survey to implement change in your product/brand/service?

2. If you ask an open-ended question with a comment box, are you going to read every answer and respond to the surveyee with how you will use the input they have provided?

I don’t know too many people who like taking surveys. (“I took an awesome survey yesterday from my vendor!”) Make sure that this survey is going to mean something, and before you create the question, think about what you are going to do with the answer.

You are asking a lot of the subscriber, respect their time and energy by having a plan…and don’t forget to thank them for taking the survey. Twice.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

Watched a great Miles Davis DVD this weekend (Electric Miles) and afterwards started thinking….

How does improvisation relate to marketing?

In a jazz composition, there is a basic melody and chord structure, after the melody is played the rest is mainly improvised. Much of the excitement in seeing live jazz is watching the players taking chances within the context of the song. Sometimes it fails, but sometimes it is perfect and magical. Taking a risk can be scary and may not work, but it can also be very exciting and lead to great things.

My question to you is…Are you taking chances?

Are you sending the same content month-to-month? Are the graphics the same? Do you send out the same special discounts or contests a few times a year?

Try to take more chances this year. The best thing about email is that it’s the most trackable marketing channel there is. It is also fluid and current, not to mention inexpensive in relation to other channels.

The changes might not generate huge buzz or conversion right away…but there is a good chance they might. Your subscribers will also appreciate the effort and will be more receptive to future campaigns because they know there might be something new and exciting inside that email. Get your marketing team together and improvise together to create an idea, launch it, and then look at the tracking. All of the feedback you need will be there in your analytics. Who knows, you may come up with the campaign of the year.

Here is a clip of some of my heroes improvising over a classic song you might recognize.

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- Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, and Jack Dejohnette playing “Cantaloupe Island”

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

Internet security site Dark Reading has a great article about seven common mistakes legitimate companies make when sending marketing email that can lead to their messages being falsely labeled as spam. Whether you’re a new or experienced sender, I encourage you to check it out. How is your company doing?

Thanks to Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey for this great article.

If you send email in the United Kingdom take note. In an effort to fight spam, the U.K. recently put new laws into effect that require companies to disclose sender information in their transactional and other commercial email messages.

Extending a law covering traditional business communications to include email, the UK Companies Act Amendments of 2006, which took effect January 1, require companies incorporated in Great Britain and overseas companies that operate in Great Britain to disclose the company name, where the company is registered, the registration number (if applicable) and registered address in their transactional emails. The amendments also require senders of non-transactional commercial messages, such as marketing messages or e-newsletters, to include the company name and a valid physical postal address in each message.

The new rules could prove challenging for the significant percentage of British companies still struggling to comply with the 2003 E.U. Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. While there is some ambiguity regarding exactly what’s covered by the new regulations, the Email Sender and Provider Coalition is counseling in favor of including the required information for all email-based marketing and transactional material. You can read more in this BizReport article, and in this ESPC member briefing (PDF).

Thanks to Email Marketing Strategy from Silverpop CEO Bill Nussey for this great article.