MindComet

Billshrink.com Alerts Allow For Quick Frequency Options

Billshrink.com is a free site serving to help alleviate the nagging little expenditures and debts that almost all of us have to endure. I use the service for my credit card debt and especially for finding the cheapest gas on my way to and from work.

My email alerts are set for a weekly frequency setting, but if I wanted to increase or descrease the frequency, all I have to do is select from four available options within the footer of the email. See below:

Why don’t most consistent and frequent emails offer these options within the emails? Why do most frequent email alerts relegate these options to their respective preference page only? Just something to think about.

Frequency options are crucial in retaining would-be unsubscribers. Read about my own experiences with the shopittome.com email and how they retained my subscription to this day.

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Mar. 31, 2011

Must Subscribe: Pei Wei Succeeds With Video and Offer Email

Pei Wei’s latest email campaign focuses on their new Asian blog experience, and this is the first of the series.

This inaugural email primarily pushes for a click-through to a video of a “Japanese Noodle Master” making a batch of Soba noodles (which is quite compelling, by the way). The secondary call to action includes a unique barcode for the subscriber to print out for a 25% discount off their variety of noodle dishes. Kudos to them incorporating this, as they can easily track how well their email converted subscribers.

All in all, this email is a great example of how you can leverage two of the most powerful calls to action—a video screenshot and a coupon embedded within the email—for a very successful campaign. The email is well rounded with social media share buttons (which aren’t just links to their static Facebook and Twitter pages), further spreading the offer and awareness of their blog.

My only complaint is in regards to the supportive copy / text. Unfortunately, the copy is embedded with the images, which limits the potential communication of the message to their subscribers (since most email clients block images by default). I guess you can’t win ‘em all.

Sign up for Pei Wei’s emails here.

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Mar. 04, 2011

LinkedIn Knows How To “Connect” With Their Subscribers

This is nothing too spectacular, but I found it worthy enough to point out.

The email below from linkedin.com recently landed in my inbox, urging me to reach out to my established connections in 2011, because… well, why not? Reengagement is always a good thing.

It’s very interesting to note that all of the images of users you see above were dynamically created and dropped into the template. All of the faces you see are my real life colleagues, who I am “connected” with at LinkedIn. It certainly caught my eye and at the very least, compelled me to click through and log into the business-centric social networking and resume site.

Remember, making your message personalized and relevant to your subscribers is key to any successful email campaign.

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Jan. 31, 2011

The Best Looking SPAM I’ve Ever Received

This email “from” Apple is SPAM.

I must say, this is some of the best looking SPAM emails I’ve ever received. I almost marked it as “Not Spam” until I began looking at it with a bit more scrutiny. The subject line (way too long with some share code tacked onto the end), reply-to (some gobbly-gook hotmail address) and links (all directing to a Polish domain) were all huge warning signs. It’s engaging, convincing and has clearly gotten the Apple email look and feel down pat… right down to the correct Cupertino physical address. But make no mistake, this is SPAM.

I’m sure that if this has made it through any of the major ISP filters and into users inboxes, it’s duping them left and right to click through. This just goes to show that SPAM is constantly evolving and becoming as sophisticated as ever. Make no mistake, with emails like this out there, ISPs will be battling uphill for years to come.

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Jan. 28, 2011

Unsubscribe Victories & Woes

Within this post you will see two extremely different unsubscribe pages. One incredibly humorous, the other… extremely infuriating.

Let’s start and get the bad extreme out of the way first, shall we?

After buying some much needed new headphones from Adorama, I decided to activate the extended warranty. All I had to do is fill out the postcard that came with them and send it back to the dealer. No big deal. I believe there were 4 fields on the card: First name, last name, email address and order number. Nothing about opting in to a newsletter. A week later, I received an email saying that that the warranty was activated. Then I started getting their newsletters. This was odd to me, since I never explicitly opted in for updates or tips. So I clicked the unsubscribe link… and this is the landing page I was directed to:

The copy on this page is telling me that if I opt-out, the extended warranty is null & void. WTF? Their preference center isn’t very clear either. My account preferences has me signed up for 2 newsletters: General & Workshops. So if I update my profile to receive none of the newsletters, without fully unsubscribing does that mean my warranty still stands??? It’s unclear. I need my warranty, but I don’t want these emails.

My point is that this is unacceptable and the very definition of a SHADY practice. Things like this leave such a bitter taste in my mouth. So have it your way, Adorama. I’ll just continue to mark your emails as SPAM, which will ultimately damage future deliveries. You can leave. Go away now. kthxbye.

Now for the good extreme. This unsubscribe page comes from Groupon:

It’s hard to see why this unsubscribe page is so awesome by a screenshot alone, so click here for the direct page and see for yourself. I assure you, it is worth your time. (Be sure to click “Punish Derrick” once you’re there). I have to say, since Groupon were so creative and injected a bit of humor into an issue that we Email Marketers find typically ominous, I resubscribed immediately. Well played, Groupon. Well played.

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Jan. 26, 2011

Lowe’s Sends A Welcome Letter… One Year Too Late

Soooo I know it’s been quiet here as of late, but that’s something I’m aiming to rectify in 2011. My apologies. Moving on…

I received this very effective welcome letter from Lowe’s late last week. But it is only effective on the surface (design & copy), as I signed up for emails from them (and have received none since) a year ago.

I feel like I’ve been habitating within the walls of the list undetected for over a year; thoroughly nestled and undisturbed. Until now. They just discovered the dark corner of the basement where I’ve been squatting. I’ve been found out. Now I can only anticipate paying rent (receiving marketing / sales emails) or getting kicked out (unsubscribing) depending on their mercy & overhead (relevance & best practices).

How does something like this happen? Why was there such a huge delay? Now, this is just a shot in the dark, but I’m assuming they switched to a new Email Service Provider and instead of importing old, unused contacts quietly, they basically blurted out an email, trying to capitalize on whatever contacts they have at their disposal. Knee-jerk and short-sighted. YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

Or maybe they are simply not effectively keeping tabs on their Welcome Letter settings and they have no idea these emails are being delivered at all.

If they were smart about it, they would check their previously sent campaigns and their corresponding list statistics. If they did, they would see that I signed up a year ago, and have since never been contacted. Attrition and list hygiene is a very important aspect of email marketing… Truthfully, it’s probably the most important aspect of email marketing. I wish companies would be more cognizant of this. Your own lists’ strength and maintenance is directly comparable to your success in email marketing.

Ideally, this should’ve resembled a campaign like BigCartel’s. They own up to not being more pro-active in messaging and ask you to opt-out if you’re no longer interested since so much time has elapsed since your initial opt in. It’s the exact opposite of what Lowe’s has done here, but they will be much better off, as they will have a strong list to utilize from here on out. I can guarantee you that their list is much smaller, but it’s also filled with users who are actively interested in their brand… and that is a very good thing.

Sorry if this was kind of a ramble, but I’m still getting back into the swing of things. Anywho, I’d like to know your thoughts. Comment away!

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Jan. 21, 2011

An Intelligent Way To Clean Your Opt-In List

The email below shows that you don’t always have to make your subscribers jump through hoops for general feedback. Big Cartel sent this email to their entire opt-in list asking if they wanted to continue receiving messages in the future.

It’s engaging, simple and effective in communicating to users that if they want to remain on the list, they don’t have to do anything. But if you want to unsubscribe, the call to action is “right here”. The vibe I get from this send is “No hard feelings. Don’t be ashamed because we’re certainly not”.

In the body above the do-or-die call to action, they openly admit that they haven’t really sent out any emails, which is why they’re double-checking to make sure you still want to get messages from them in the future. It’s smart and proactive on Big Cartel’s part.

What do you think about this method of list hygiene? Would you have done the opposite and made the subscriber click through and fill out their preferences?

View Comments

Posted by Bryan Quilty on Nov. 18, 2010