MindComet

E-mail is Calling for Rejuvenation!

E-mail marketing is nothing new, but what is new is the idea of e-mails in the future. What will become of our beloved, instant communication tool? 

In http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=46193”>“The Future of Email” David Baker, VP of E-mail Marketing at Agency.com, feels that the important thing is not email itself, but the ability to communicate a synchronized message in the mixed media world. He feels the future is bright with opportunities and ideas of how to carry this medium to the next level. If we had the ability to customize every email, to make our communication more personal again and add character, we would be transforming email. He claims the important part of each medium is not what it is, but what it does for individuals, companies and our society. It all comes down to communication in our fast paced, technology driven world. As he puts it “users are becoming creatures of their communication devices and are already molding their communications patterns to mixed media.” We have become dependent on these abilities and we rely on them to communicate.

Baker feels in order to grow E-mail marketing, we need to expand on our idea of email in general. It doesn’t have to be the single channel that it is today. Email is calling for rejuvenation.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 31, 2006

Enquiring Minds Want to Know

Surveying your list can be an easy and inexpensive way to learn about your subscriber list.  While surveying loses its effectiveness if it is done too frequently, if you are not already conducting surveys, plan on surveying your list two – four times a year.

You can gain a great deal of insight and target your messages accordingly when you survey. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind when you prepare your survey.

Ask specific questions.  The more targeted your question is, the more targeted the answer will be.  This allows you to better plan your campaign or event.

Use your survey to learn more about your subscribers.  By asking questions about geographic location, company size and concerns related to their industry, you will be better equipped to target your subscribers with the relevant information they are looking for.

Use your survey to find out who is still interested.  If you have subscribers that have stopped responding to your messages, send a short survey with an incentive for completion.  If there is still no response, there is a good possibility they are truly no longer interested and it may be time to say goodbye.

There are some overall survey best practices to consider, these include the following:

Let your survey-takers know to expect.  Tell them how many questions there are or how long it should take to complete.  Also, let them know there is a specific incentive waiting for them at the end. 

Make the incentive you offer specific and relevant for your business.  Offering an incentive that would be appreciated by your audience will provide better survey results than offering an incentive that will have serial survey takers crawling out of the woodwork.

Keep your survey to the point.  While you have your subscribers’ attention it can be tempting to ask the world, but by maintaining your focus you will get better results and minimize the risk of people dropping off half way through the survey process.

Make sure your questions make sense.  Consider having someone else read the question to verify clarity.

Instead of asking your subscribers open-ended questions about the type of information they would like to receive consider instead a way for the survey participants to rank industry issues that are important to them.  This will allow you to see the most important areas to focus your upcoming email communication.

If your email service provider does not include an integrated survey tool consider using a link to an external survey site.  The robust reporting tools provided are extraordinary and will give you the details you are looking for.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 25, 2006

Make the Most of Internal Communication

When you make the decision to start an internal email communication campaign for your company there are some email guidelines to think about before you click the send button.

• Subject Lines - The subject line should pertain to the email and be compelling enough to encourage the reader to open it. The subject line should not be too long, in all caps, or contain any exclamation marks or $ signs.

• From Lines – From lines should clearly identify where the email is coming from. It can be from a group ie: XYZ News - or an individual ie: John Smith - . Remember that all undeliverable messages due to full mailboxes and out of office replies will go to the email address provided.

• Creative – The layout of your message should flow easily. Images should be clickable. Consider a brief synopsis of each article or story with a “read more” link that would direct readers to landing pages. This allows tracking by page clicks the articles that are most important to your employees.

• Opt-Out Method – While a business to business or business to consumer communication requires an email address or another Internet-based response mechanism, such as an opt-out link, to clearly be provided in order to allow a recipient to request that you do not send any future email messages to that address. This is not required in an internal communication. Consider instead a confirmation to your employees how important they are such as: At XYZ Company, we want every team member to receive the latest information about our company. Therefore, we do not provide an option to unsubscribe.

• Sending Frequency – You should be consistent in the frequency in which you send your emails. You should determine a schedule and stick to it, whether it is once a day, once a week, or once a month. The more consistent you are in your mailings, the more familiar your team will become with receiving them.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 18, 2006

Message with Meaning

One of the goals of your email marketing campaign should be to engage your subscriber and make them feel like the message was written just for them. By integrating web analytics into your messages, you have the ability to message with meaning.

According to JupiterResearch 41 percent of email marketers are making plans to use clickstream behavior data as an email targeting tactic. In the past the lack of resources and some difficulty integrating web analytics with email have been cited as the most common reasons why email marketers have not used clickstream data to target their campaigns.

There is the potential for considerable benefits of using clickstream behavior as a part of your overall email marketing strategy. A May 2005 study conducted by JupiterResearch showed that targeted emails that use clickstream data on average generate nine times the improvement in revenue and 32 times more in net profit over untargeted email blast campaigns.

As you start planning the web analytics integration, begin looking at customer behavior - as you understand their needs you will be able to market more effectively to them. Consider the following:

1. Who has abandoned you?

When one of your subscribers visits your site and fails to complete a process, weather it is abandoning a shopping cart, failure to complete registration or any other process that is left incomplete, you have an opportunity to reach out and re-engage your customer. Send a reminder encouraging them to return and complete the process.

2. Where have they been?

When you know someone is searching specifically for a product on your site, you are that much closer to a sale if you reach out to your subscriber with an e-mail message that includes additional product information, or discounts to related products or categories browsed.

3. When are they visiting?

When customers stop checking your site on a regular basis or, at the other end of the spectrum, do so more often, it may be time to change your messaging strategy. Consider the offering of rewards to devoted clients who visit often, and persuade those who haven’t stopped by in a while to come back for a visit.

4. Where have they been?

Depending on the implementation of your Web analytics, you may be able to tell what site an e-mail customer visited just before coming to yours. Were they looking at your competition? If so, be ready to respond with your most salient sales message. Customers who come to you from a partner’s site can be sent messages that support the value they receive from the affiliation.

5. Why do they do what they do?

By pushing the e-mail demographics such as age, gender, occupation, income and geographic data you already have into your Web analytics program, you can learn what product categories and what pages are currently appealing to your demographic segments rather than relying on past response and well-informed deductive reasoning.

In order for these tactics to work,  your e-mail and Web analytics programs must be able to seamlessly pass data between applications. At one time, companies were forced to coax together the relationship. Now, more e-mail service providers and Web analytics vendors are teaming up to make integrations an easier process so marketers can focus on campaign design and strategy. Because of this, the ability to develop highly-relevant e-mail messages integrating web site data has never been easier.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 10, 2006

Oops! I Did it Again

Email marketing poses a certain challenge.  In general, once a message has been sent to your list, it is delivered with little recourse to retrieve messages.  I am a firm believer in testing email messages through a rigorous QA process and splitting my lists diligently and carefully for A/B testing. 

Over the course of a ten hour period last Friday I was part of subject line testing from a company that I had previously double-opted in to receive marketing messages from.  However, instead of receiving one message, I received the exact same message five times with two subject lines.  What did this cost the company?  How many other subscribers received the message five times?  I would venture to guess it was the entire list.  How many subscribers were annoyed enough to opt-out?

While in this case, an apology email, a sixth message, was not necessary - five messages are enough - If an error is made, what can you do to soften the blow?

• Meet with your project team without delay to prepare a course of action if necessary.  But keep in mind that every error, depending on the severity, may not require a response.

• Discuss what types of mistakes require an apology or correction email.  There is no need to bury your subscribers in a tangle of unnecessary apology messages.

• Adhere to your strict QA process.  When teams start sacrificing process for a speedy turn around time, there is a greater opportunity for corners to be cut and errors to be made.

• Develop a procedure for apology messages.  Use the messages for loyalty and marketing purposes.  Use these messages as a reason to show your subscribers how much they mean to your organization.  Don’t waste the opportunity on an apology that has not been well planned.  You run the risk of irritating your subscribers further.

Those five messages I received last Friday were a good reminder that it is important to handle email marketing tests and sends with caution and care.  Be sure your list is split properly and in a way you understand before A/B testing.  And if you do make a mistake that warrants an apology, have a plan in place to help mitigate the damage.

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Posted by MindComet on Jul. 03, 2006