MindComet

Lazy Email Marketing

The message I received from Levi’s® Jeans this morning seemed a little lazy.
The subject line:  “Reminder:  20% off ends tomorrow” had me interested.  Had they told me before they were having a 20% off sale?  I reviewed the fine print and saw the 20% off sale had begun on April 27th. 

I went back and looked at the recent messages I received from Levi’s.  I had gotten the identical creative on April 28th.  The only difference was the subject line:  “Treat Yourself to Levi’s(R) This Mother’s Day”.  The 20% off sale was mentioned in the body of the message, but without opening it, I would not have known there was a sale.  A missed opportunity for bargain shoppers.

So, I’m reminded today about a sale I might or might not have known about with the exact same message. From an email marketing perspective, it frustrates me to see the an identical message twice with no other changes than the subject line, especially when it involves date related copy.  The copy at the bottom of the image says “Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 13th.  Order by May 3rd to Ensure Delivery” That’s fine for the original message sent on April 28th.  However, a Mother’s Day themed message telling me on the 8th that I should order before May 3rd is too little too late.

There definitely could have been some better planning. Perhaps sending this message on May 2nd, or timing the sale to coincide with Mother’s Day shipping this campaign could have gotten better results. 

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Posted by MindComet on May. 08, 2007

The Voice of Email

The Email Experience Council,a professional organization that is working to improve the image of email marketing,  launched a new blog late last week.  The Voice of Email will feature posts from the leading voices in email marketing, including Jeanniey Mullen, founder of the EEC and Senior Director of Email Marketing at Ogilvy One Worldwide, David Baker from Avenue A | Razorfish and Stephanie Miller from ReturnPath.

As The Voice of Email ramps up, this will be another great resource for email marketers.

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Posted by MindComet on May. 07, 2007

Are Permission Reminders Necessary?

It really depends.

A post today from No Man is an Iland discusses the advantages and disadvantages of placing a permission reminder:  You are Receiving This Message because…

There are a lot of variables that determine if you should use permission reminders or not.  If your ESP does not automatically include this information and you are not sending messages on a regular basis, you should by all means remind your subscribers why they are getting your message.

So often, I receive messages that I’m not clear as to why.  There is a strong possibility that I have opted-in but don’t remember doing it. 

If you start your messaging relationship on the right foot, by including a welcome message and setting expectations about frequency, and maintain that frequency, there may not be a need to remind your subscribers are receiving your messages.

If you’re using your subscriber list for random ad hoc messaging, then remind your susbcribers why they are receiving messages from you.  Then develop a messaging strategy so there won’t be a question why.

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Posted by MindComet on May. 04, 2007

Opt-Out Campaigns Produce Quality Lists

An article published by ClickZ today stated that CBS SportsLine is in the process of removing subscribers who are no longer interested in receiving messages, but have not unsubscribed.

Patrick Herde, director of product management and marketing at CBS SportsLine said “In the old world, having a big list was probably a value.  Now we’re more interested in active recipients.”

On April 23rd, CBS SportsLine sent a one time mailing to their opt-in subscribers informing them that they would stop receiving messages unless they took an active step to re-subscribe by April 30th. 

This provides a great value to CBS SportsLine advertisers.  The new and improved subscriber list is more engaged and more likely to open the messages and see the advertisement.

While Herde declined to give specifics as to the before and after, he did say the list shrank from seven to six figures. “It was a pretty significant fraction,” he said.

Click Here to read the entire article.

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Posted by MindComet on May. 03, 2007

Using Dynamic Subscriber Segments

To send the most targeted messages to your database, consider using dynamic subscriber segments to make messaging easier. These dynamic subscriber segments or SmartLists™ are compiled by rules of inclusion or exclusion.

Your SmartLists can be based on time or behavior including:

Subscription Date
Opens or Clicks
Custom Field Data

Maybe you want to send a message to subscribers who have not opened a message from you in the last month.  Maybe you want to send a different message to subscribers who clicked on a specific link in your message.  Perhaps you want to send a message to everyone who joined your list four days ago.  The possibilities are endless.

Think of your SmartLists as a saved search query.  When you use these queries in conjunction with a reoccurring message feature, your email campaign can be sent to subscribers automatically based on preset rules.

One of the benefits of using dynamic subscriber segments include the ability to message to specific members of your list effortlessly. You can send out a multitude of specific, targeted messages automatically to the proper segments.

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Posted by MindComet on May. 02, 2007

Survey Says…

I received an email from NikeiD this morning.  It arrived in my inbox at 7:26AM EST.  When messages are sent at that time, it’s on top of my inbox when I arrive at the office.  Pure genius email marketing.

But what if I had subscribed using my personal account? No worries there. According to the Consumer Email Study conducted in December 2005 by DoubleClick, 21% of respondents check their personal email at work all the time, while 48% of respondents check their personal email at work at least occasionally.

For retailers, such as Nike, their email marketing campaigns can almost insure that consumer shopping and browsing hours include working hours. 

The timing of their email was well thought out.  It was one of the first messages I opened this morning.  Unfortunately, the survey the email was requesting I take was not as well planned.

I clicked on the link in the email, which brought me to a well designed survey that was a mix of single answer, multiple answer and form boxes that allow the survey participant to explain their answer if needed.

I was dismayed to see that after I completed the first page there was a NEXT link at the bottom of the page.  There were more questions.  Before I jumped into the second page, I scrolled down to see if I would be completed with the survey after another full page of questions.  When I found another NEXT link, I abandoned the survey. 

Nike’s timing was sure to catch people as they were starting their workday.  And without any idea of how much time the survey would take, I could not commit to continuing any further.

If you are planning to survey your subscribers, and you are trying to gather a lot of information, set expectations about how long the survey will take if it will take longer than a few minutes, or is more than one page. 

Consider gathering information from your subscribers in the form of crumbs, rather than loaves. Subscribers are more likely to spend 45 seconds at a time over the course of several weeks answering questions rather than investing 10 minutes all at once.

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Posted by MindComet on May. 01, 2007