Golden Leads

I was in a discussion this week with a handful of email marketers about email and IF it was a sexy “digital” tool. I know that email is really seen by many companies as a standard and not really innovative technology. But let’s think about that idea a little more.

What application could people not live without online?

What holds the web and communication at a one to one level together?

What method is use to launch contests, drive buzz, grow word of mouth and develop databases of people that want to interact or have an experience with your product?

No it is not mobile, nor RSS, now a sexy GUI Widget… but email.

The reason that many marketers or agencies are not leading with email as it is old and not sexy to them. But they all use it in everything they do and launch online. Without it we would be holding conversations in a whole other way. And winning new clients in some many pitches does not come down to: email will drive this to new heights. But in the end, they are wrong and place email as an after thought or 50th slide in a pitch deck.

And why is this? Because so many agencies don;t get email, aren’t good at it, and do not have people in house with the experience needed to make it pop. I know all of you do and that you get it.

Email is not dead and is not dying. It is the glue.

Thanks to The Email Wars for this great article.

I met with a very motivated individual today who has a pretty great idea for a political website/application. Half way through the conversation we started talking about things like Digg, de.licio.us, and Facebook. He had never heard of them.

It is very important in web/email marketing to keep up with the trends and know what is hot and gaining steam - even if you don’t use it in your own life.

For example, I have a Facebook account (Find me), which I think is a great site and I “get” it. I only have about 6 friends b/c most of my social crowd hasn’t caught up. They are still using the supermarket tabloid-esque myspace.com, which I despise just from a design perspective.

That being said, I need to know if a client has an opportunity to gain traction say through a Facebook app.

I saw Robert Scoble speak last week at the Internet Strategy Forum, as he brought up a great point about the so-called “Digital Divide”. He said that mainly what it comes down to now is people who want to be involved and keep up with the web and people who just want to tune out. There are those of us that live and breathe the web, and those who use it for work, or to look up a movie time or restaurant review and that’s it.

As an email/online marketer, you better be keeping a step ahead of your competition, or as Ray Liotta said in Goodfellas, “you’re dead”.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

While Becker Surf does a great job changing up email creative, this new look really helps me since they do not target by gender or by past shopping behaviors. (at least that I am aware of). But this clean new look focuses on their main call to action or promotion, but then below lets me select by gender what I want to drill into.

My lesson in the wars on email today is: If you cannot have a preference center with your database or email marketing platform (hey try eROI -shameless plug) then present choices. At least you don’t run the route that so many other consumer clothing vendors do of not showing me content that is relevant. Be relevant to everyone if you have to use the shotgun approach to email marketing.

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Thanks to The Email Wars for this great article.

I was recently on a great discussion thread about the future of email–how important is email to the future of interactive marketing? Here was my contribution to that discussion:

The ability to communicate online is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Social networking, mobile, UGC, chat, virtual worlds, etc., all provide incredible new ways for people (and marketers) to reach out and influence each other. These new technologies are darned interesting, and I haven’t met a marketing executive who believes they don’t matter. To many marketers, and particularly those focused on Gen Y, I can see why TV, direct mail and even email would seem uninteresting by comparison.

In light of these exciting new technologies, it’s understandable that some marketers might be tempted to bypass email altogether. But ignoring email would be no different than ignoring Web sites—both are necessary and critical pieces of the Internet world. Anyone who downplays these foundational elements is disconnecting themselves from the very pulse of the online experience.

The real question about email is whether it’s the buggy whip or the wheel. Is it an accessory to an approach that is quickly fading away, or is it a foundational piece of a very long evolutionary cycle?

You know my vote.

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

Dell has recently made some brand changes and with the introduction of a new line of color infused laptops has caught my attention. Not for the new case mods, but for the way that they are carrying over the colors of the new brand into their emails. For so long the were so standard, yet nice, and even business vanilla. But these new series of emails are catching my attention in the inbox.

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I know that many of you don’t change out the looks very often to the old tried and true newsletters, but change it good. We get into this whole conditioned behavior routine of doing what is comfortable and nice, but mixing it up works.

Now mixing it up is not just for the one-off campaign email, but let it carry over to all your activities. Change up your emails at least once a year, and tie them around a change in products, campaign messaging or even just to do it different. Templates are made to be used for a while and then to move on.

Would running the same print ad fit your model? Most likely it would not as that is why you are always innovating with print. Do the same with email as it can have a segmented testing range and a shorter shelf life when it hits the inbox time and time again. I think you will see response rates go up as there is a curiosity factor with change.

Thanks to The Email Wars for this great article.

Alex (the guy who posts on this blog along with me) told me to check out www.areyousuperbad.com because there was some funny videos on the site. I went on the site and naturally went to the restricted area. I mean really, who does not check out the naughty section?

So after you enter it asks you for your information:

After putting in false information it tells me the information is not correct:

Only after I put in my exact information does it let me in. I have an easy name “Jeff Mills” so it was able to easily identify if I was who I said I was. We tried it with a few other people in the office and if we put in a birthday even one day off of what our real birthday is, it would call us out.

I recently saw a clip on the news that said approximately 90% of people in the US can be identified if you know, gender, birthday, and zip code. If Sony is truly checking a massive database to validate your true identity, is that right? Is it legal? Should it be allowed? As a marketer, I want the most accurate info available, but even I feel this crosses the line. What do they do with the information now?

What do you think?

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

Now one would think that with more money to promote an artist or record that a record label would get email. I know the team at Warner Music Group and I know that they GET email. But unfortunately the labels and artists groups handle the outbound marketing. I have signed up for quite a few to see if I see something revolutionary hitting the inbox, but often times I am faced with emails like this below.

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Now you would think with an artist like Diddy or others of his public profile caliber that the emails would follow best practices, or even push the envelope. Sorry to let you all down but they are image heavy, have most of the text below the fold, and even with this one as an example… do not deliver any content that make you feel inclined to click through.

Have any of you seen some good label or band emails? If so send them my way to tell me which ones so that I can sign up and take a look.

Thanks to The Email Wars for this great article.

If only this worked for fake spam email offers! I did this and it all stopped one day….all of it! Do you trust me? Or is this an elaborate spoof? Who do you trust?

How to Opt Out of Credit Card Offers

Want to stop credit card offers from showing up in your mailbox? Here are two ways to stop the offers, or at least slow them down:

1. Go to OptOutPrescreen.com or call 888-5-OPT-OUT (888-567-8688). These are the credit reporting industry’s opt-in/opt-out resources, which stops the four credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion) from selling your credit information to direct marketers. You can opt out for a five-year period or permanently. (You can always opt in again if you decide you’d like to get these offers in the future.)

2. Add your name to the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA) Do Not Mail file. You can access this service online by going here, or you can send a letter or postcard with your name, address and signature to Mail Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, PO Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512. Online requests carry a $5 fee, while mail requests are only the cost of postage. The DMA’s member companies check against the Do Not Mail file to take out names of people who don’t want to receive offerings by mail. Your name stays on the list for 5 years, and you can re-register at the end of that period.

Credit card companies get consumer information from other sources in addition to those mentioned above, so, while these two methods will considerably slow down credit card offers, the offers won’t necessarily stop completely.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

Here at eROI we took a look at Q1 (January - March) email statistics to identify trends and opportunities in both day of the week as well as time of the day statistics.

In prior studies we saw above average open and click rates on the weekend, however, recently weekends are not performing as they are in the past, this could be seasonal in nature as we typically see dips in performance as the weather gets nicer.

We first took a look at Time of the Day email statistics in Q2 2006 and we decided to take another look a year later. Similar to last year, we see spikes bookending the work day with a noticeable spike around lunchtime. What does this really mean? Are those numbers relevant to your business? Should I start sending outside of work hours?

We encourage you to learn more about eROI, email marketing and this study, by visiting the Time Study download page.

Thanks to Return on Subscriber for this great article.

Google has made yet another acquisition (this is number 20 in 2007), and it’s one of the biggest yet.

On Monday, Google announced it was buying out anti-spam company, Postini. Widely used by corporations, Postini is one of the three large anti-spam players in the marketplace. Analysts believe this acquisition will strengthen the enterprise anti-spam capabilities to better compete with Microsoft.

Analysts estimate that Postini’s revenue in the $40 - $50 million range, which suggests that Google paid a high premium with its $625 million cash offer.

Personally, I think this acquisition is less about fighting spam and more about bolstering Google’s suite of office applications designed to compete with Microsoft Office.

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