Email Marketing Lounge

The creative team here at Infogroup/Yesmail continues to earn recognition for 'out of the box' email design. Literally, out of the box. Our HP campaign was recently recognized by Chad White for visually surprising recipients with a playful design that... More

The creative team here at Infogroup/Yesmail continues to earn recognition for 'out of the box' email design. Literally, out of the box. Our HP campaign was recently recognized by Chad White for visually surprising recipients with a playful design that has Shrek's arm breaking outside of the grid. As he points out, this isn't a common tactic used today, but when it is used it certainly does grab your attention. Our HP Monsters Vs. Aliens message was also designed to break the grid and received awards from Creative Media and OMMA. A shout-out to our award-winning creative team here at Infogroup/Yesmail - nice work!

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We are proud to announce that we have won another Interactive Advertising Competition award with HP. HP was awarded the 2010 Internet Advertising Competition Award for Best Technology Email Message Campaign for their Windows 7 Launch multi-message series.HP created a customized... More

We are proud to announce that we have won another Interactive Advertising Competition award with HP.
 
HP was awarded the 2010 Internet Advertising Competition Award for Best Technology Email Message Campaign for their Windows 7 Launch multi-message series.

HP created a customized email message stream to highlight the new Windows® 7 operating system and associated new product launches. The targeted audience consisted of tech savvy email subscribers, which allowed HP to focus more attention on the new product designs featuring the new operating system, rather than on the operating system itself. The Windows® 7 launch proved a huge success, with customer engagement metrics 20% higher than typical email campaigns and significant revenue generated.
 
The Windows 7® Launch was another example of the strong collaboration between HP and Yesmail, with Yesmail providing creative design and strategic consulting, as well as full service campaign management and execution.
 
The full list of IAC award winners can be found here.
 
This is the second IAC award for Yesmail and HP. We also won the Best Computer Retailer Email message award in 2009 for the HP Mini 1000 campaign.
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Today I read an interesting article on the Email Experience Council website that prompted me to consider whether win back programs are "smart marketing or a failure of strategy". There are some interesting debates on both sides. I agree that... More

Today I read an interesting article on the Email Experience Council website that prompted me to consider whether win back programs are "smart marketing or a failure of strategy". There are some interesting debates on both sides. I agree that marketers should be more focused on early and sustained engagement tactics so they don't have to build strategies to win back lost customers, but the reality is that most email lists contain a significant portion of non-responders.
 
In my opinion, the right lifecycle marketing approach is a combination of consistently delivering relevant content in your ongoing communication, and then testing the introduction of periodic "win back" campaigns to re-engage dormant customers.
 
For me, the first step in understanding why customers go dormant is to evaluate general consumer buying behavior, and then build test strategies to learn how you can influence response. I'm an avid online shopper so I use my own buying behavior as a barometer for average customer behavior. Like most consumers, my online buying peaks around special events: Mother's Day, back to school, Christmas, birthdays and seasonal weather changes. But I'm also always looking for a good deal, and I frequently respond to well-timed win back promotions.
 
Here are some tactics that work for me:
 
1) Continue sending me offers even when I'm not actively shopping
I usually send flowers to my mother-in-law on her birthday every year, so I appreciate the annual reminders from ProFlowers to place my order. The rest of the year I'm not paying as much attention to their emails. That doesn't mean I don't want to shop with them anymore, it just means it's not relevant to me right now. The "3 day surprise" message ProFlowers sent this week caught my attention and is a good example of how to maintain engagement with customers even when they aren't actively shopping with you.

Note: You need to test frequency of messaging to your non-responders. You will probably find pockets of old non-responders that do not produce enough revenue to justify ongoing mailing costs. Well executed tests will help you find the right targeting balance to produce a positive ROI.


2) Tell me you miss and appreciate me
This win back message from Steven Madden gets right to the point. The subject line was "We miss you so here's a gift just for you." The offer is compelling, it feels sincere, and it gives me a great reason to shop again.











3) Give me some options
As part of their comprehensive lifecycle marketing approach, HP has implemented a multi-message revival program to win back old non-responders. One of the messages in the series addresses the subject of continued messaging and gives the consumer the prominent option to unsubscribe. This message series serves dual purposes. It re-engages some old non-responders and generates incremental revenue, but it also helps cleanse the list of subscribers who may no longer find the messages relevant. Personally, I'm more intrigued by the free gift offer than the unsubscribe link.

So my conclusion is that win back programs are smart marketing. Focus on sustaining subscriber engagement, but don't overlook the benefit of well-timed win back offers to re-engage with dormant customers.
 
You can read the full EEC article here:
Win Back Programs: Smart Marketing or Failure of Strategy?
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Today Yesmail Professional Services hosted a webinar for our clients called Getting into the in-box: Deliverability in 2010. Deliverability continues to be a top concern and challenge for all email marketers, and since it is a constantly changing landscape it... More

Today Yesmail Professional Services hosted a webinar for our clients called Getting into the in-box: Deliverability in 2010. Deliverability continues to be a top concern and challenge for all email marketers, and since it is a constantly changing landscape it is important for us to take the time to update our knowledge and stay on top of emerging trends and opportunities.
 
Jason Warnock, Director of Deliverability and Bob Sybydlo, Deliverability Analyst shared some great information about the state of deliverability including compliance, legal and technical challenges all senders face.
 
They helped our clients understand how ISP actions can impact deliverability, what Yesmail does every day to help our client's get their email delivered, and what steps senders need to take to ensure their email gets into the in-box.
 
Key topics covered included:

• Email authentication
• Campaign volume monitoring
• Abuse and hard bounce metric tracking
• How to combat mail stream pollution
• Standard bulking and blocking challenges
• Creative content blocking

It was a great event. If you would like a copy of the presentation, please email me.
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Develop original contentMake sure you show value to your customers by providing original, useful, or at least fun and entertaining content via your feed(s).  Sales announcements, store openings, new items, causes supported, service outings and restorations - all of these... More

Develop original content
Make sure you show value to your customers by providing original, useful, or at least fun and entertaining content via your feed(s).  Sales announcements, store openings, new items, causes supported, service outings and restorations - all of these are great, proactive ways to communicate with your followers.  Remember to be brief (obey the 140 character limit!) but not too brief.  Leave the "gr8" abbreviations for SMS whenever possible.
 
Include links to relevant content
140 characters isn't much space to work with, but you can and should include relevant links to website content in your Tweets. To save space you can shorten URLS and track clicks for free using services like bit.ly
 
Track response
Twitter response tracking is limited, but you do have some important success metrics you can monitor.
 
Yesmail Enterprise will help you track:

• What you tweeted
• When you tweeted
• How many were following you when you tweeted

Additionally, you can track:

• Follower trends - are the number of followers increasing with your marketing efforts? Increases and decreases in follower trends can also be tied to engagement and relevancy of your content.
• Clicks - how many clicks are you getting on the links in your Tweets? How many clicks do you get on email content promoting Twitter?
• Conversion - if you have revenue tracking codes as part of your URLs you can track website visits and revenue generated by your Tweets.

With patience, perseverance, and an open mind, you can make Twitter a core component of your marketing strategy and improve the results of your email initiatives as well.

Catch up on Part 1 to learn more about how Yesmail Enterprise allows you to centralize the management of a single marketing campaign across many channels. Less

This week we announced our new Twitter Campaign Management feature available in Yesmail Enterprise. This is exciting news for marketers, because now you can save time by centralizing the management, coordination, and analysis of a single marketing campaign across many... More

This week we announced our new Twitter Campaign Management feature available in Yesmail Enterprise. This is exciting news for marketers, because now you can save time by centralizing the management, coordination, and analysis of a single marketing campaign across many channels (email + social + mobile) within one tool.

It only takes three simple steps to execute your Twitter campaigns in Enterprise:

1. You set up your account
2. Create your content (up to 140 characters)
3. Schedule and send

Not sure where to get started? Twitter crosses many of the boundaries of social, email, and SMS and requires its own approach to be truly successful.  Here are some best practices to keep in mind as you develop your Twitter marketing strategy.

Promote Twitter in your emails and on your website
Make sure your customers know how to find you and what benefits they will get from following you on Twitter. Will you send special discounts or give them early notice of new products or sales? Will you keep your followers updated on the latest events?

Dick's Sporting Goods sent their email subscribers an invitation to follow them on Twitter with a nice Free Shipping incentive.  The message did a good job creating visibility and outlining the benefits for followers.

Integrate Twitter with your email program
Twitter can be used to announce special sales and promotions, or to create viral buzz for new marketing campaigns. With Twitter Campaign Management you can schedule tweets as teasers or chasers for email campaigns, or send out special "twitter only" deals. Your  Twitter strategy should complement your other marketing channels, not be a stand alone.

Buy.com's Tweet 'n Seek campaign is a great example of a multi-channel strategy.  They promoted a "social scavenger hunt' via email and website banners. Clues were tweeted to followers, and then the community posted their answers on Buy.com's Facebook page.

One Twitter feed may not be enough
If you have a large company, several customer-facing departments, or varied products or services, you may need more than one Twitter feed.  Don't try to cram several disparate message streams into one account if you don't have to; create individual feeds for specific topics or customers to drive more value to the end user. For example, you could set up one Twitter feed for Customer Service, and a second Twitter feed for Marketing.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2 and learn about developing original content, including relevant links, and using Yesmail Enterprise to track responses.
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Last week I participated in a webinar with HiveFire sponsored by Online Marketing Connect. Our topic for discussion: Integrated Marketing & Communication. I specifically spoke about integrating email and social marketing to deliver on your marketing goals. Thanks to everyone who joined us! More

By Julie Valenti

Last week I participated in a webinar with HiveFire sponsored by Online Marketing Connect. Our topic for discussion: Integrated Marketing & Communication. I specifically spoke about integrating email and social marketing to deliver on your marketing goals. Thanks to everyone who joined us!

We had nearly 500 registrants and when polled, most folks indicated they hadn't started integrating social into their marketing mix and/or were in the planning stages. This is not surprising. As the channel solutions are shifting and evolving quickly, we're all trying to get a handle on how to harness it's power to help achieve our marketing goals. I mentioned the recent study by ForeSee Results, in which only 25% of the top 100 online retailers have a formal Facebook presence and of those, 25% have less than 10k fans. This is despite the fact that there are 400M+ Facebook users and more than half of all online shoppers use Facebook. So, if you feel behind, don't. But that said, it's time to get going!

I broke the discussion into three components: 1) Weaving social media tactics into your email marketing programs, 2) Feeding your email marketing programs via smart social initiatives and 3) Mapping your integrated digital communications plan. There were lots of good questions, and some we couldn't get to so I've provided some additional information here.

1. Social Media Policy - I recommended drafting a social policy so that the social media experts across your organization are on the same page and you can encourage employees to retweet and promote company happenings. Here's Coca Cola's 3-page social media policy (via viralblog). Andy Sernovitz, a personal favorite of mine, interviewed Adam Brown, head of Social Media at Coca Cola and imparts his own wisdom on SM policies.
   
   
2. Resources for Social Media - we discussed budgetary and resource restrictions when developing social strategies; most often, I'm talking with managers already responsible for email or online media, and social/mobile tactics are simply added responsibility (for now). Our research shows less than 10% of companies have dedicated staff. We see maybe 250 community managers employed today. Our strategic partner, R2i advises to be successful, you need a community manager who can handle online PR situations. Per Page Sands at R2i, "this field will remain small until there is a clear tie between community building/management and ROI." He further add that to build the business case for community, connect the role to the following:
   • Increase in Web traffic (page views, referrals, etc)
   • Reduced lead-to-conversion time
   • Increased distribution of your value prop
   • Higher quality, customer centric products, that get released faster
     
     
3. Targeting high-income, luxury via social - Jetsetter and Gilt Groupe are two examples of how luxury companies have used web, email, social and mobile to target luxury goods to the higher-income bracket. They use Facebook and mobile friendly apps/sites to target customers. Further Gilt Groupe offers a $25 credit for references and accepts members by invitation only (though anyone can obtain an invitation); they have taken the viral component to the next level, all while keeping their product line exclusive. Both heavily use email to target new deals, offering unique daily discounts on high-end goods.

NOTE: for the few of you finding proven success with your integrated digital strategies, I'd love to hear from you! The social mindset is all about sharing and I'd love to swap stories over a virtual beer.

If you'd like to learn more, contact me at interactive@yesmail.com and join the Online Marketing Summit's upcoming conference later this month.

PS - I'm working on a separate post regarding B2B companies and their approach to including social media in their digital communications. Check back soon!
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We are proud to announce that we have won the Gold Marketing Sherpa Award for Best Dynamic Content or Personalized Email for the Microsoft Enhanced Hotmail and Messenger Launch. Background: Microsoft recently launched enhanced mobile versions of its Windows Live... More

We are proud to announce that we have won the Gold Marketing Sherpa Award for Best Dynamic Content or Personalized Email for the Microsoft Enhanced Hotmail and Messenger Launch.
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We are proud to announce that we have won the Silver Marketing Shepa Award for Best Opt-In or List Growth Message (B2C) for the My Coke Rewards Community Invite. Every quarter, My Coke Rewards reaches out to a select few... More

We are proud to announce that we have won the Silver Marketing Shepa Award for Best Opt-In or List Growth Message (B2C) for the My Coke Rewards Community Invite.

Every quarter, My Coke Rewards reaches out to a select few of its members to join the My Coke Rewards community.  Community members have a chance to regularly share ideas, opinions, and other feedback with the My Coke Rewards team to make the program better for all members.  As noted in the email, "community members' feedback this year helped give mycokerewards.com a bold new design that's faster to use and easier to get around," among other great ideas and recommendations.

Other recent creative awards and recognitions include:

• 2009 Creative Media Awards - Best Email: Hewlett-Packard's "HP Monster Sale"; Finalist Coca-Cola / Vault Double Points
• 2009 Internet Advertising Competition Award - Best Computer Retailer Email message: "HP Mini 1000 campaign"
• 2009 Ad: Tech Awards Finalists - HP Mini 1000: The Perfect Mobile Companion & HP Voodoo Monthly Newsletter

Congratulations to our Creative Services team! They continue to deliver break-out email design that drives engagement and delivers results.

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Select tests that make an impactThere are an infinite number of tests you can perform, but here is a quick list of some test concepts we have seen produce actionable results: Subject Lines: While subject line testing is probably not going... More

Select tests that make an impact
There are an infinite number of tests you can perform, but here is a quick list of some test concepts we have seen produce actionable results:
 

• Subject Lines: While subject line testing is probably not going to be the biggest impact to the business, it's certainly a great place to start with its ease of execution. The test is simple, randomly assign two or more subject lines and measure response on the backend. Make sure you keep your key success metrics in mind. A quirky subject line may produce more opens, but if it doesn't drive more revenue it may not be a winner.
  
  
• Sense of Urgency: Creating a sense of urgency around the offer/call-to-action can produce outstanding results. Classic examples of "urgent" language include "Only 2 Days Left" and "Ends Soon" - - anything that contributes to the subscriber acting now. This is one of the first tests that should be executed when developing a new email program.
  
  
• Call-to-Action:  Having a clear call to action is an essential part of all email messages. Where you can really drive the business forward is testing different call-to-action tactics. Examples include testing different call-to-action "buttons" and testing the call-to-action placement within the message.
  
  
• Multi-series Messaging: Multi-message streams can be tested in content, number of messages in the stream, and timing. This is an area that can really stretch the imagination of your Marketing Team - - the sky is the limit with testing!

 
Fit testing into your marketing calendar
To adopt a consistent approach to testing, it needs to be something you commit to and don't de-prioritize. Consider developing a 12 month test calendar to keep yourself on track. Identify a handful of items you want to test during each quarter, and then add them into your marketing calendar to keep track of your goals, test execution dates, when it's time to analyze your results, and key findings.
 
Finally, acknowledge that all of your tests will not work. This is part of the continuous learning cycle. Test your theories, analyze your results, draw conclusions, and then move on to the next opportunity.
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