MindComet

The Tactical Send :: Don’t Rush It

Once you have verified that your message has met the basic quality assurance guidelines, you are probably pretty confident that you are ready to send your message to your subscriber list.  While you may be anxious to get the message out the door, slow down and review the final steps to ensure there aren’t any errors in the sending process.  Unlike most other interactive projects, there are generally no take-backs once your message has been sent.

Even after a rigorous quality control process, review your subject line one last time.  Make sure that it reads how it was intended and that every word is spelled correctly.

You should know roughly about how many people are on the subscriber list you are sending to.  If you are expecting to send your message to 20,000 subscribers and your sending confirmation screen shows your message will be sent to 100,000 subscribers, chances are you have the wrong groups selected and you should not proceed until you verify or reselect your groups. 

When performing A/B testing take special precaution in selecting your subscriber lists.  You want to be certain that each group is only receiving one message instead of the multiple message fiascos I’m sure we all have encountered from a subscriber perspective.

And finally, don’t ever become over-confident when sending an email message. Rushing through the tactical steps of sending your message is a sure-fire recipe for a mistake.  Don’t wait for a mistake to humble you.  Slowing down and checking each step as you go will help ensure a successful error-free send.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 10, 2007

Seamless Email Marketing

As parents often do, I asked my kids the other day what they wanted to be when they grew up. My son said he wants to be a professional tennis player, my daughter said she wants to be on American Idol – That’s very exciting stuff to a five year old…

I wasn’t offended that neither of them wanted to follow in my footsteps and become an email marketer. The best email marketing plan should be seamless enough that the target audience can’t put their finger on it. There shouldn’t any thought by subscribers about how a message just for them made it to their inbox. Other than email marketing peers, your subscribers shouldn’t be saying, “Now, that’s one fine email campaign.“

A recent post by our friends at The Email Wars shows a great example of seamless email marketing. Asking for preferences after the fact is a great way to segment your lists, or ensure you are capturing the correct preferences of your subscribers, because sometimes things change.

Another example is the registration process for email communication from Old Navy. By asking subscribers up front what they are interested is important so you know you are sending the right messages to your subscribers. When I registered, I selected the ‘Women’, ‘Men’, ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ categories. - Yes, my family is like a walking Old Navy commerical. Old Navy would waste a lot of time and effort sending me messages about teenagers’ and babies’ clothing - I have no need for it, and by not checking those boxes, I told them that.

The message I received this morning was directly related to the choices I made at registration. And while I am cognizant of the reason I received a message touting the latest in little girls’ styles, the other moms who have subscribed to this Old Navy Email Campaign should only be thinking about how stylish their future American Idol is going to look this spring.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 09, 2007

Making Changes?  Toot Your Own Horn

I have been critical of the Scotts Company email marketing efforts in the past , and while I would like to believe they are avid Email Marketing Voodoo Blog readers, took our criticism to heart and decided to change their emailing ways, it is more likely that they analyzed the responses to the survey they sent on January 29th.

The Email I received today introduces their new look.  I received the newsletter with the new look and feel on March 22nd and quickly glanced over it.  The messages have been historically infrequent enough that I couldn’t have told you there was a change until I received another email today announcing it.

What I liked about today’s message, it not only included a sample of the message, but also what has changed, as well as what I can expect down the road.

This included:

Another aspect of this message was a survey at the bottom.  I think they should have held out a few months.  Their subscribers just took a survey in January. 

Overall, I think it’s a great idea to not only roll out a new look and feel when it’s appropriate, but to also let your subscribers know what you did and why.

Nice job Scotts!

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 05, 2007

Shameless Plug: Vote For Us for The Blogger’s Choice Awards

Email Marketing Voodoo has been nominated for a Blogger’s Choice Award in the Best Marketing Blog Category.

The Email Marketing crew couldn’t be more excited and we hope you feel the same.

Click here to check it out and vote.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 05, 2007

Happy Birthday to You

We have talked in the past about collecting additional information about subscribers in your email marketing campaign.

Using this information to segment your list for a more personalized message is key to engaging your subscribers.

While you are asking for information about your subscribers, consider asking for their birthday.  The month and the day is plenty of information, unless you have a specific reason to ask for the birth year, it’s really not necessary.

Sending birthday greetings and even including a small incentive allows you an additional opportunity to touch your subscribers and endear your brand to them even more.

Sometimes it’s the little things that mean the world to people.  It keeps them coming back for more.  And equally important, they’ll tell their friends about it.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 04, 2007

KISS:  Email Marketing Tip # 4

Today’s topic is KISS: Segmentation = Success.  In a world of CEOs and agents, punk rockers and hip-hoppers, couch potatoes and health nuts, all recipients are not created equal.  If your email marketing is not segmented, how will you successfully reach anyone? 

Paul Briggs, Travelocity’s Director of Customer Loyalty and Marketing, has seen his daily email program go from 3 million names to highly segmented messages of no more than 60,000 names.  “We had to work on deal-finding strategies for our customers… Twenty dollars on a domestic trip might be interesting to some, but it’s not going to be if you are traveling to London.“

Define each segment as a group of unique individuals who share common interests.  Then find out what subscribers want, and give it to them.  Run subject line tests.  Craft the copy carefully.  And recipients won’t ask, “Why did I get this email?“  Follow this KISS tip and your email will serve as an experience that creates loyalty.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 03, 2007

Simple Surveys :: Straight From the Inbox

Email Marketing professionals know that polls and surveys in email can often cause rendering issues, with the result being broken ugly messages - Not the results you’re after.  But Mars proved its genius for finding the email survey loophole: Each number on the ranking scale is its own separate link. Of course, this allows for the possibility for multiple clicks that could affect the accuracy of results.  But this unscientific survey still collects valuable data – a finger on the pulse of opinions right from the inbox.

Mars has a brilliant idea.  But by taking it a step further, they could have a segmentation goldmine.  Those who were uninterested in the newsletter can be singled out into one group, and those who loved it in another. Allowing for more individualized upcoming messages.  There is a world of messaging potential straight from this simple survey.

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Posted by MindComet on Apr. 02, 2007