MindComet

1 + 1 = A Singular Message?

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 30, 2007

The Home Depot :: Exemplary Email Design

Ever since I signed up for Home Depot’s mailing list I have been consistently blown away by their email’s designs.  In my eyes, they are the epitome of solid and effective email design.  Just today I received an email where the calls to action perfectly fit in the preview pane.  Take a look…

The most important and engaging information all displays nicely above the fold, for optimized eye-catching opportunities.

Along with this, even if the images were blocked, it would still be effective, since all of the text (minus the navigation) is not apart of the image.  The email would still render, and the recipient would still find about their offer.

I cannot say enough good things about Home Depot’s Email Marketing team.  Bravo, guys!  You’re my email design heroes.

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 29, 2007

Pre-Checked Boxes?  What’s the Question?

It’s a well-known best practice to leave the opt-in box unchecked when adding a sign up for your email marketing campaign to something unrelated where you are capturing email addresses, such as a sweepstakes sign up.

I received a message from the folks at Benjamin Moore Paints yesterday promoting a $10,000 room makeover sweepstakes with Pottery Barn. After clicking through to the sweeps page I filled in the usual information, Full Name, Address, and Email Address. Below, there were two checkboxes unchecked.

I assumed these were typical Opt-In Checkboxes that would require attention from me so I could receive information from Pottery Barn and Benjamin Moore.

This was not the case.

If I checked the boxes, I was declining future communication.

Changing the standard question from what people have come to expect - check the box to opt-out vs. check the box to opt-in - has the potential to grow the database. However, just because the box is unchecked, doesn’t make it a best practice.

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 28, 2007

A Simple Solution to Combat SPAM

There are numerous FREE websites out there with the capability to check your email’s From Address, Subject Line and the Content to see if anything might be ‘questionable’ and most likely marked as spam.  Get into the habit of referencing any of the following sites for each and every email before you send it live.

• http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/
• http://www.gravitymail.com/spamscore.php
• http://www.programmersheaven.com/webtools/Spam-Checker/spamchecker.aspx
• http://www.swiftpage.com/site/SpamCheck.htm
  

If your emails are constantly being marked as SPAM, ISPs will pick up on it; thus leading to your IP being blacklisted – considerably lowering your chances of reaching your (potential) audience.

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 28, 2007

KISS:  Email Marketing Tip # 3

Today’s topic is KISS: Bringing Back the Basics. People have to sift through flooded inboxes every day. Which message will capture their attention? Using a basic format-one idea and one image- can make your message stand out like a buoy in an ocean of email.

I find synergy, as a copywriter and an email marketer, in the art of making a complicated message bite-sized. So here’s a quote to chew on: “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.“ -Albert Einstein.

Cheers to the folks at Hollister, who mastered this technique in a recent email:

After breezing through an inbox full of typeface, I was captivated by the handwritten, faded-marker font. Reading this made me feel like a human being, and not some multitasking machine.

Like Einstein said, “it takes a touch of genius” to make something so simple so striking. By giving your email marketing a human element—bringing it back to basics— the message can elicit positive emotion and gain stronger readership.

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 26, 2007

Why Did I Get This Email?

As frustrating as it can be, sometimes our most admirable, best intentions don’t turn out the way we planned. 

I received an email last night at 9:15 PM from Mars PetCare US.  I have never received an email from Mars PetCare US before, and I’m 99.9% sure I didn’t opt-in to receive email from them. 

The subject line read:  “Our brands not affected by pet food recall”.  I opened the message simply out of curiosity.  How did they get my email address?  Their brands were displayed in the right sidebar of the message.  I recognized some of the brands, but I don’t currently buy any of them. My dogs eat a different brand.

After some digging through the header, I figured out this was the same parent company as M&M’s, Masterfoods.  I did opt-in to receive messages from M&M’s a few months ago.  One mystery solved.  I could be wrong, but it seems the most logical way they obtained my email address for this message.

The footer of the message read: “This is a singular mailing and will not re-occur.  For more information, please see our Mars Privacy Policy.”  So this morning I reviewed the Mars privacy policy.  I stopped at the second line, because it was so humorous, I had no need to continue: 

We will only send you materials you have indicated you want to receive according to your preferences, and we will honor your opt-out requests. 

Really? 

There were no preferences on the page I opted-in on.  Sure, they wanted to know how often I eat M&M’s.  They did not want to know if I wanted to receive messages from their other divisions, or even if I had pets. 

Additionally, this message contained no opt-out link.  Yikes!

If there is a need (would there ever be a need?)  to send a singular mailing to your entire database , it’s a good idea to let them know why they are receiving the message.

Adding a few sentences in the header, something like, “As a valued subscriber of Masterfoods, we thought it was important to share the following message with you.”  Your subscribers will be more receptive to the message.

And then by all means, give people the option to opt-out. I mean, it’s only the law…

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 23, 2007

Email Marketing By The Numbers

In a just few weeks, Chris Baggott, the co-founder of Exact Target, will release his first book, Email Marketing by the numbers.

Hailed as paint-by-numbers for email marketers, this book applies modern marketing principles to permission based email marketing.

Baggott explains tactics that will take your email marketing campaign to the next level.

Including:

One to One Marketing

Engaging Subscribers

Gathering Quality Addresses

Segmenting Your Lists

Relevant Content

Keeping your program SPAM free

and much more

Read More

Read More & View Comments

Posted by MindComet on Mar. 22, 2007